A Fling or a Lifetime Commitment
by SapphireTrafficker
Summary: Ana was just a college freshman who wanted nothing more but to start her second year and get on with her life like she had planned. A summer back home in Montesano, an intruder, a boy just a year older than her came and dumped all his shit on her and flipped her world upside down. Who knew a fling would turn into a lifetime commitment? short AU. HEA. OOC. No BDSM. No Cheating.
1. One: An Unwanted Birthday Gift

**I know I talk a lot and you hate it, I do too. So skip my talks if you really only care about the story (in which I have no objection to). I just want you to know that my profile page can be helpful from time to time, and checking it occasionally may be helpful. Just a kind suggestion, do what you want.**

 **I post this really just trying to test the waters, I've got a lot written down for the three stories that I've started posting on here, but I'm not** **going to post it so soon.**

 **The story is inspired by Four Weeks in Montesano, by _annabaker71_. Please go check out her story too!**

 **Proclamation: this is a work of pure fiction, all mistakes are mine.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, and, you know what I own.**

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Unwanted Birthday Present

Anastasia Steele was an ordinary college girl who wanted nothing more but to finish the last three years and get out to experience life. She wanted it to be peaceful and calm, and by that, she didn't mean by losing her virginity to a man just a year older than her, who showed up in her hometown during the summer and flipped her world upside down.

She wanted to spend that summer preparing for her course for the next academic year, and also to chill out on her own, away from the busy city of Pullman, Seattle or Portland. She wasn't even bothered with her best friends from high school and her childhood best friends. She just wanted to have some time on her own and study to make sure she was the best in her university.

One day, a man showed up in her front porch, looking lost and defeated. She took pity of him and let him in. He told her his name was Christian Grey, and that was all that they had known about each other. He was the typical boy that grew up from a rich family and was currently studying in an Ivy League school.

They sat on the doorstep and talked for the whole afternoon, he stayed the night and they talked some more. He told him about his family and his issues, and she told him about her plan. They all had plans for their own future and they all believed that it was just fling between them, their paths weren't meant to cross.

Despite mentally preparing themselves for the day, when the day came for him to leave, both of them were still upset. However, none of them showed it, they knew it was bound to happen, they were bound to be separated. Both of them believed that each other was just a special person that helped to get on with life.

Nevertheless, it didn't stop her from thinking of him, neither could him stop thinking about her. She had wished him good luck with his business and he hoped she would be fulfilling her own dream. Both prayed to let their paths cross in the future once again, but none of then dared to say it out loud. Their connection was special and it was something that most couple asked for a lifetime, it was just them that didn't realize what they had shared in that glimpse of time.

Her birthday, she used to be a huge fan of it, but after the short fling between her and that stranger named Christian Trevelyan-Grey, the occasion now brought her haunting memories; because the celebration following the summer fling scared the hell out of her.

Ana was initially not all that conscious about when her period would come and go, mainly due to her busy schedule to keep up with school, jobs and also other activities that would keep her scholarship as well as her wallet full enough to pay back for the loan. Taking a pregnancy test that her ever so caring roommate and childhood best friend, Kate, wasn't how she envisioned to spend her nineteenth's birthday, and it wasn't the birthday gift she would ever ask for.

She was only a sophomore in college for that matter, even though it had slowly started to become a trend for girls to marry their sweetheart and have a family by the time they graduate, but that's not how she imagined her life to turn out, she had never been a fan of a spontaneous life. She had her future well-planned, and everything would start once she graduated and begun to settle down.

Kate had threw her a birthday party just like every year they spent together, she had been showered with gifts from people that she knew, friends or acquaintances, classmates or even professors. Some had simply given her a card, and others took their time to buy her something and wrapped them in a gift box. She appreciated every gifts she had received, apart from the one she held in morning, the stick that showed a pink plus in the small screen.

When Christian said he was going to drop out and concentrate on starting his own business, he said he had been working on it by himself for more than a year already, since he started college in Harvard, he had been working on that project and had made a small amount of profit already. She thought he was just a lost boy who was hurt by his recent discoveries of his life about what he was really passionate about; she thought he didn't mean it. So when she walked into Clayton's the next day for her shift, she almost fainted when she saw his face plastered on the front cover of a magazine in Paul's hand.

"Hey, Ana. Early as usual." Paul said, putting the magazine aside as he stood up to greet her. He was a late middle aged man who had been living a single life for as long as he could remember. He was not only her employer but also a friend who could understand her when she said she never wanted a boyfriend, or never sought for a relationship.

Ana smiled briefly, her eyes leaving the page and darting back just as fast. She could feel the blood on her face draining away, and bile rising to her throat threatening to come out of her mouth.

"Are you okay? You look pale. Happy belated birthday, by the way." Paul walked closer, offering a weak smile that didn't reach his eyes, putting a hand on her forehead feeling for a temperature. She could see her as a dad, but his demeanor and the stuff he kept made him more like a grandpa than a father to her.

"I'm fine, just a bit tired from the party yesterday." Ana lied smoothly, brushing off his hand, her eyes finally tearing away from the magazine still sitting on the countertop where he had left it. Before she could stop herself, she realized that her legs were bringing her to the book and she was bending down to pick it up.

She hadn't had the energy to head downtown to a doctor just to double check just yet. Her schedule was hectic and wouldn't allow her to take any breaks. Paul had never been the one to push her to come to work, he had even offered her to take paid breaks since he said he could understand the stress she was under, but she had always declined, not wanting to get paid for something she didn't do. Staring at the magazine in her hand blankly, it had only been two months since their fling, she was wondering how much one could do in two months.

"I thought you hated magazines." He frowned, but shrugged when she didn't say anything as she brushed her fingertips over the photo of the man on the front-page. "Youngsters these days." He sighed to himself and left behind the counter to do some final check up, talking to himself as if he was already in his eighties and not in his late thirties.

Ana was still in a daze, completely unaware of the concerned looks Paul was shooting her constantly. She was still staring at the picture of the man in suit, her fingers tracing the words 'Christian Grey' absentmindedly. The words next to his picture gradually making sense to her, 'predicted to be the youngest rich bachelor'.

"To what do you owe your success, Mr. Grey." She heard, though she thought it was her imagination from the interview that she was going to read about, but when the door opened and the voices got louder, she started to come out of her trance and for once, remembered where she was.

"Ana, you okay?" Paul walked around the counter to her, ignoring the celebrity that had stirred up a lot of attention in front of his little hard-ware store whom had just entered, or more like barged in. "You seemed a bit off."

"No, it's okay. I'm good. Really, just the party, the hangover." She tried to come up with a better excuse for her entranced and obsessed gestures toward the magazine earlier, but she was thankful when Paul didn't question further even though he knew she wasn't telling the truth. Though she didn't drink any alcohol yesterday, because she didn't dare to do so if the stick she held in the morning was speaking the truth.

"Well, in that case, you should probably start your shift." He suggested kindly, pointing at the customer who was obviously pretending to look at the stuff on the shelves when in actual, he was eavesdropping their conversation.

"I should." She muttered under her breath to herself, making her way to the customer that she didn't register the identity of.

"Hi, um, how can I help you?" Ana cleared her throat behind the male who had his hands in his pockets and his eyes wandering up and down the shelf in front of him, displaying cable ties.

Upon hearing her voice, he froze on his spot for a split second before turning around to look at her. The speed that he turned in could give him a whiplash if he had longer hair.

"Oh, hey." She lowered her eyes, afraid to make direct eye contact with him when she recognized him immediately.

He, too, was loss for words.

"I thought when you said you're dropping out, you didn't mean it." She cleared her throat again, trying to clear the awkwardness hanging in the air at the same time.

"I meant it, I just don't see the reason to keep attending school when I've got everything to let my project thrive in the real market." He corrected.

"So… how did that go?" She was just trying to keep the conversation going because the silence was creepier than an awkward conversation.

"So far so good." Was all he said, she groaned inwardly. How the fuck was she supposed to keep up a conversation with a guy who would barely say more than four words in an answer apart from the first sentence.

"I'm going to Harvard next year." He looked up with curious eyes that made her extremely uncomfortable. "For exchange." She added to clarify.

"So you got that?" There was something in his eyes that looked like pride but she couldn't be sure.

"How'd you…" Her voice faltered as she tried to figure out why would he know about her struggle and desperation to get the exchange position.

"You told me."

"Right, I forgot I ranted about it to you." She muttered to herself in embarrassment.

"Business and law." He said more to himself than to her. They were her majors and the offered courses at Harvard were good in these areas apparently.

"Yes, you still remembered." She didn't know what else to say and he nodded fondly, the conversation was heading toward another awkward silence. "So what are you looking for in here?" She decided it was the end of catching up, maybe he actually wanted nothing to do with her, the lame college girl that got laid for the first time during her freshman year summer.

"You." He declared, his eyes looked full of determination.

"I'm sorry, what?" She gaped.

"I'm looking for you, Anastasia." He repeated, this time, sounding more confident.

"Excuse me? I mean, why?" She stuttered.

"Because I missed you." He replied as if that was the most obvious answer.

"It's not apparent to me." She muttered to herself under her breath, but he caught it.

"How did you find me?" She beat him to be the next one to make a sound.

"It's not hard to find a person especially I know you haven't graduated." He kept it short and vague, which wasn't at all helping her ease her discomfort. Shuffling in her feet from side to side, she contemplated on what would be the best thing to say to him next, but was again interrupted. "Are you free?"

"No." She answered too quickly for him to believe that her schedule was actually packed.

"I haven't even ask you when." He thought she was avoiding him purposely.

"I'm not purposely avoiding you, trust me." She held out a hand trying to diffuse the tension that had started to build up.

"It sure sounded like that to me." He shrugged nonchalantly, but that move annoyed her more than she would admit, perhaps because of his not bothered attitude.

"My schedule really is tight. I'm really sorry." She argued, wanting to delve further into her daily life before she was infuriated by the look on his face. "I thought you would know that since you've obviously looked into me." She regretted what came out instantly. She didn't know how they've managed to turn the awkwardness into something heated.

"Well I'm sorry if I am trying to reach out to you after what I thought was an incredible time we had spent together just merely two months ago." He took a step closer to her, backing her up against the shelf behind her. "Yesterday was your birthday and I wanted to be there for you, but I can't get out, so I was hoping to take you out tonight."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that." She apologized in a small voice, even though her pride told her not to, she was just scared of him. "I would really like to go out with you, but I had to go play tennis right after this. Then I have volleyball training at night. I've got a morning fitness training with the team, then a whole day of classes tomorrow and I will be playing tennis all afternoon, so when I get back to my room I only want to sleep. So I do apologize if my daily schedule allowed me no time to socialize." She started off in a small voice but as she went on, her confident built because it wasn't her fault that she had to do all that because she was poor; she had no idea why she wanted this stranger that stumbled into her house in the summer to understand how much she needed those extracurricular activities.

"Why do you have to work yourself up like that?" He only meant well, and she knew it, but she couldn't help but feel a little offended.

"Because I'm not fucking rich like you, I for one, has to work to pay my tuition loan even with the scholarship." She shouted in his face. Maybe it was her abnormal hormonal activities, or maybe it really was his presence that made her felt uneasy. Thinking about hormones, she thought of something else that had been distracting her.

He looked at her dejectedly, then strode past her, squeezing through the tiny space between her and the other shelf, he walked out of the store.

"Did you just scare a customer away?" Paul came back from the door looking dazed and confused.

"He's not here to buy anything anyways." She rubbed her temple, trying to make the reply in her mind stop.

"He's the guy that flipped your world." He suddenly clicked, she nodded in defeat with a sigh, covering her face with her hands and leaned against the counter to get everything out of her mind and calm down.

"How the fuck did you figure that out?" She wasn't expecting him to answer to her outburst, but he did.

"The way you stared at that magazine when you first came in." He shrugged, still keeping his patience, she had no idea how he could be so calm when she was taking out her anger on him.

"He can't just come back and thinks he can whip me away with a snap of a finger just like how he's doing with his career, I have a life that I need to sustain. When I'm finally back to normal, he comes hurtling back to me; that's just so unfair!" She shouted, pulling her hair in frustration after the little rant. "I'm sorry." She was then faced with a wide-eyed Paul staring at her with an expression that was in the middle of amusement and worry.

"No, don't apologize, dear." He put up a hand to stop her from starting another rant.

"I know I shouldn't be blaming him, Paul, we both knew it would be just a short summer fling. We were just dumping out sorrows and worries on a stranger that's all. I wasn't expecting to see him anyways."

"But you do have feelings for him." He pointed out, closing the cabinet behind them and putting on the lock, it was his own personal cabinet where he store his favorite magazines and articles, she didn't even know why would he put on a lock, it was just a bunch of scholarly articles that she didn't know anyone would be interested.

"Yeah, and I'm not going to lie about that, it's just that–" she didn't finish when the next customer walked in. Paul gave her an eye, telling her to attend the new comer, and they would finish the conversation later. Rolling her eyes, she went off.

There was something nice about Paul, he may look like an old man when he was only a late middle aged shop owner that lived the most simply lifestyle. He didn't like what normal people in his age would do, he prefer a slow pace in life and he would prefer a day in a cozy wood house in the middle of nowhere with a cup of coffee and some articles in his archive than spending a day in the office worrying about something that had nothing to do with him apart from his income. He was a down to earth man, yet he was also up to date about the vulgar slangs, the trending sayings nowadays and the catchy phrases in recent modern cities. He didn't have any social media and he rarely browse any internet yet he was well aware of the small things that went around. He may not know who Jennifer Lawrence was, but he knew there was Hollywood.

Paul Clayton liked normal and peaceful lives, he never bothered himself with finding a pal, let alone a partner for life. He could understand Ana's mind like a teenager and laugh with Ana about some silly jokes shared between youngsters, to her, he was never acting his age. She was never scared of hiding anything from him, and he would listen to her ramble on and on about the last tennis player she had played with and how bad of an experience that was. He would talk to her about her majors, and they would talk about books. There was always so many topics and subjects that they could talk about, their relationship was chilling and steady.

"Enjoy your day, ma'am." Ana said to the retreating figure, closing the cashier drawer and feeling Paul's eyes had fallen on her once again. "Stop staring at me, you're giving me creeps today."  
"That's because you're creeping me out today. You're acting all eerie today." He sat down at the chair that he was in when she first walked in at the start of her shift.

"I know, and I've told you it's because I'm tired from the partying yesterday." She avoided making eye contact with him, even though she could lie through all her life, being the best liar and all -which wasn't a good trait- she felt guilty about not being completely honest with the plain, old man in front of her.

"Don't take any offense here, but you don't look hungover. Just making my observation." He stated with his arms raised when she gave him a shocking look, as if he had invaded her privacy.

"Yeah, well, things weren't going as I anticipated lately." She sighed, it wasn't exactly fake, but it wasn't the entire truth either. So far, there wasn't anyone, apart from Kate, that knew about the test that came out positive.

"You know I'm all ears right?" He said, offering a shoulder to lean on, or more like offering a listener to her newest rant. Usually, this would be the time that she started to rant his ears off about her latest academic 'fail', but today, she just nodded and continued to go through the pile of bills in front of her that she knew was already cleared and tidied. She just wanted to keep her mind occupied before her shift ended.

"Who are you playing with today?" He asked, in an attempt to loosen her up. She had always had a passion for the only two sports that she was extremely good at, but not the only two that she played.

"Same as last week. We just stopped because it's summer. He said he enjoyed playing with me, and I don't mind playing with him, since he gives me more pay than any other clients and he's decent." She shrugged, seemingly less stressed once she got her mind on tennis.

"Then do you have a game some time soon?" He asked, referring to the volleyball team at school. She was the first freshman captain in the school history.

"Yeah, I think so. I'll have to check with Kate, but I think we have one some time next week?" She tilted her head, trying to think, but with her tiring schedule, she left all the plannings and calendar to the vice captain, Kate to fuss over. It wasn't unusual for a freshman to be a vice captain or a secretary for a varsity team, but it was certainly a first for a freshman to become captain of a school team; especially a team with the best reputation.

"When are you going to Harvard?"

"How do you know I'm going?" She raised an eyebrow at him, resting her elbows on the counter in front of her. Clayton's wasn't a popular store and there weren't many people in town that would come here often, it was only the few people that come and go each day who would buy a lot of stuff at once that made the store's profit. They were mostly left alone throughout the day, and everything was quiet, it was just the two of them; that was also one of the reasons she insisted on coming here everyday even when she didn't feel like moving out of her house.

"I heard you talking to _Mr Grey_." He let a rare small smirk rest on his lips, that made Ana even more annoyed, but it was what he liked to do. He would tease her about a man that he thought had a crush on her, just because it would irritate the hell out of her. She hated to be in the center of attention, she hated spotlights, it was for Kate and not for her; at least that was how she always wanted to believe, even though Paul and Kate both suggested otherwise.

"Of course you did, of course you're there to eavesdrop." Ana shook her head but couldn't keep the small smile off her face as she looked down trying to hide it.

"I didn't know I was eavesdropping a private conversation, it wasn't a pillow talk and it's in my store, so I thought it's work related." He was now playing the innocent card that would not suit his appearance age, nor his real age.

" _Anyways_ ," she rolled her eyes, raising her voice just slightly to get his attention so they could move on, he chortled at her attempt and let her talk, "yes, I got the position, and I will be going next year. The exchange is for a whole year, at least that's what I've applied."

"So does that mean, I get to pay one less bill?" He joked to mask his slight disappointment.

"I'll come back on my fourth year of college, and I'm sure I can still work for you." She tapped her finger on her chin trying to cheer the old pal up, she would really miss the job and talking to him.

"Nah, I'll be fine, just be sure to come and visit me when you can. I'll invite you to my cottage some time." He dismissed her easily, "you have a future and a bright path to follow down, so I will be here to support you."

"Will you need a hand while I'm gone? I can get one of my classmates or teammate to come down and help out?" Ana offered, she really didn't want him to be all by himself all the time when she was gone. She really enjoyed the company of this 'old' man.

"I think I can manage. There's only a handful of people coming in and out everyday, after all." He waved an arm gesturing the small crowded shop.

"Okay, but if you need anything, just tell me." Ana thought that was the least she could offer to a man who had been there for her to listen to all her stories, whether bitching about a classmate or a teammate, or simply just school, and never judging her. He was like this old grandpa that she had never had in her life.

"How did your interview go?" He changed the subject swiftly when their last one was dying down. "For the school Ambassador."

"Oh, I got it." She said, her eyes looking bright and shining again. "I never told you, but I got the news last week telling me that I am officially an Ambassador for Washington State University."

"Knew you'd do it, kiddo. Told you you've got potentials that no one got and with your grades and everything, the school would be stupid not to let you represent them. You're their model student."

"I'm not sure how to take that many compliments from you in one day, but guess what, I am their model student. That's why I got to go to Harvard for a whole year, and I get to stay with someone in their apartment over the weekend, I don't have to be stuck in school campus. At least that's what they've told me so far, but it might change since it's still so early." She was suddenly so excited about next year and her worries were gone for a brief moment, imagining herself in Harvard and learning about all kinds of new knowledge and experience that she wouldn't obtain in Seattle.

By the time she got back to her dorm, it was already late at night. She had grabbed something with the tennis player to eat, since they played a little bit over time today, and he had so nicely dropped her off at school.

"You're finally home, I thought you're going to spend the night with him too." Kate came out from the bathroom to greet her. "How was your date?" She wriggled her eyebrows teasingly.

Ana rolled her eyes. "It's not a date. Kate, we just played a little longer than usual." She knew her best friend was just joking, and she didn't need to correct her, but if she did't Kate wouldn't shut up.

"Are we still going to the hospital tomorrow?" She asked once taking the hint that Ana wasn't in the mood for jokes and teases.

"What hospital?" Ana asked automatically while trying to think of the reason herself. "Fuck." She cussed, throwing her bag on to the mat in the middle of their room and groaned loudly as she thumped down on to the sofa. "I totally forgot." She groaned into her hands. There was an undertone in her voice that reminded her that she had left out this part of her schedule to Christian for a reason when he cornered her today.

"You look like you've seen ghosts lately, are you sure you're okay?" Kate asked, looking away from her iPad which had their calendars, plopping down next to her, folding her feet under her legs.

"That's because I have." Ana replied barely in a whisper.

"Is José's still asking you out? I swear that guy needs to get over his crush, he needs to realize that you're only ever going to be friends with him. He's friends with us for as long as I can remember, why is he suddenly so damn determined to be more with you? Maybe he's always got a crush on you, but I just can't foresee a relationship between you two. He's just not your type." Kate was so wrapped around her mind as she kept blurting out, Ana just sat there zoning out, not giving a shit about what had been coming out of Kate's mouth lately, she would wait till she was finished.

"I didn't see him since yesterday, Kate." Ana spoke when she was finally done and waiting for Ana to start judging on her theories and opinions.

"Not him?" Kate still didn't regret saying all the stuff about their closest male friend, but she was now more intrigued than before. "Then who?"

"Christian." Ana muttered to herself, looking at her fingers in her lap.

"Your summertime sadness?" Kate had sympathy in her voice, because she had been in an on and off relationship with her boyfriend since high school. They were trying long distance now in college but would meet up once in a while to test their chemistry.

"He asked me out today, saying he wants to celebrate my birthday with me, even though it's a day late." Ana didn't know that there were tears in her eyes when they entered her mouth as she opened them to speak. Thinking about the tenderness in his voice and the way he was looking at her, it was a longing look, and that made her even sadder that she had turned him down. "I lashed out because I thought it was unfair for him to just come back and whip me away after I finally got over him and persuaded myself that I'd never see him again for the rest of my life."

"Does he know how much he had affected you?"

"I don't know, but the way I turned him down, I was so rude, but I couldn't help it."

"Then will you reach out to him? Maybe you can get him to go out with you for lunch and you two can talk." Kate suggested kindly, but Ana shook her head.

"I don't have his number. We didn't exchange it since we thought it was only going to be a fling. I didn't want it to be more, I didn't want anything more but I just can't help but feel more than I should when it comes to him."

"Hey, I get that, okay. I don't know why I can't just break up with my boyfriend and move on, because we don't control who we fall for."

"I'm not falling in love with him. Yes, he's a good looking, successful bastard, and rich fucking asshole. Yes, he's nice and gentle and everything a woman craved for, but we're not meant to be together. We're not even meant to see each other."

"But he came looking for you, doesn't that explain something to you?" Kate offered, she could be an expert in relationships sometimes, in spite her suggestions might be a little disturbing and weird sometimes, she was still more experience than Ana nonetheless.

"Then if he wanted me that much, he'd be able to get my number too." Ana sniffed, hoping that he would have her number and reach out to her one last time. "I promise I'm not going to push him away this time if he ever finds me again." She silently took the oath.

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 **The pregnancy issue will be addressed. Next chapter is at Harvard, just pretend that she's there after her birthday, say in the middle of September, for the sake of this story.**


	2. Two: Harvard

**Thank you to all the followers (favorites too) and reviews!**

 **Please excuse all mistakes.**

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Harvard

Ana dragged her suitcases off the car and followed the student volunteers that went to the airport to get all the exchange students from all over the places. She was just one of the two that were chosen from her university. The other guy was someone that she didn't know, he was in another department but they were both juniors.

On their way to the school campus, she kept her eyes glued on the passing buildings and the busy street of New York, but her mind was occupied elsewhere. She was wondering what would happen if she really was pregnant, the child would be three months old already. The thought of a child sent shivers down her spine. She was just a twenty year old that had just had her birthday celebration together with a farewell party, wishing her a good luck at Harvard.

 _"Kate, you're paying right? I really don't want any other people to find out." Ana asked Kate for the umpteenth time since they got out of their dormitory this morning. Both of them were nervous for the test but it was inevitable._

 _"I said I will, and you don't even have to pay it back. I told you I'd do anything to be there for you, Ana. Now, just relax." Kate was slowly starting lose her patience, but she could understand Ana, she knew how her best friend was feeling, so she bit her inner cheek to prevent herself from losing patience._

 _"You sure your boyfriend won't know?" Ana was worried that Kate's boyfriend would check her bank history and ask about this, she didn't want to stir up trouble for her best friend's long distance relationship._

 _"Why would he even look into my bank account?" Had always been Kate's answer, she kept assuring Ana that her boyfriend would never find out. "Just chill, Ana, those pregnancy tests can be inaccurate sometimes." She knew how much Ana valued her grades and how important it was for her to stick to her grand plan. A baby was just off the limit, plus, the thought of single motherhood would just add more stress onto the pile that was already resting on her shoulder._

 _"You sound like you knew I'm not going to be pregnant." Ana scoffed._

 _"He's your first fuck and not everyone's that fertile, getting pregnant isn't that easy even if you want to, Ana. You don't just get knocked up with one sex, some couples were trying for years to conceive. Trust me, it's not that I'm doubting your ability, but I'm just saying, there's a huge chance that your body is just trying to adjust to the your first experience." Kate explained, trying the more scientific approach in a vain attempt to sooth her shaking best friend beside her._

Heaving out a sigh of relief, earning a look from the guy sitting beside her from her school, she turned away quickly, pretending not to notice what she had just done. She didn't know if it was monstrous to not feel sad about not actually being pregnant. After all, pregnancy was the last thing she would want to go through and a child was just in the never considered column in her mind. She was never a fan of children, and she certainly wouldn't be a fan of a kid just after a one-night stand without a condom. She was ecstatic when she heard from the doctor that her blood sample came back to be negative, she just had a higher hormone level than normal because like Kate had said, her body was just getting used to no longer being a virgin. The nurses were all giving her a weird look, never had them seen any of the patients that delighted and joyful upon learning that they weren't pregnant.

After that pregnancy scare, Ana was able to focus on her work, extracurricular and had been more efficient with getting her work done.

The volleyball team had been more successful than last year under her leadership, they had won the championship again in their league for two consecutive years already, and it all happened since she joined the team, therefore it was safe to say that the team won due to her participation. She had been getting more people to play tennis with her and she was able to raise her payment. She was genuinely surprised when people still came to play with her even she doubled her demand. They said she was honest and good at tennis, they enjoyed playing with her and thought every penny was worth it. There were even some kids that were there for her to teach beginner tennis to.

Her life had been better since the pregnancy scare, everything was smooth in general, apart from some obstacles that she had to overcome by herself, but they all didn't leave any mark in her memory. Overall, she was satisfied with the year and looking forward for her year away from Pullman.

Once arrived in her assigned dormitory, she was quickly introduced to her roommate, her name was Mia Grey. She was a blonde girl that was a freshman, and from the moment Ana stepped into the room, she learned that Mia was very talkative and she was enthusiastic about just every fashion trend. One look at her and Ana knew the girl screamed fashion.

Throughout the year, she had managed to block out a certain gray eyed, copper hair businessman out of her mind, and hadn't been thinking about it. The man didn't even come into her mind when the girl introduced herself as a Grey. Ana just believed that there would be a lot of people out there with the same last name and that wouldn't mean they were related. She was convinced that she wouldn't find any trace of the man in the department that he used to study in, but she was very wrong.

She had gotten calls from him, no doubt, but she had been ignoring it even though she had once saved it in a moment of weakness. She didn't want anything to do with him, wanting to see him as a bad distraction. She didn't know how to deal with the scare that she had went through, let alone telling him. To her, he was still this intruder that invaded her house over the summer, and they were still strangers to one another. She hated it that he had possibly dug up her background, speculated that he had dug up her cell number and as the person that she knew over the summer, he wouldn't give up on trying to get her attention.

In the end, she told herself that if she had decided to focus on school and graduating top of her class, she needed to forget that distraction and she had convinced herself that turning him down at Clayton's was probably the best decision she had ever made, despite how upset she had been a few months after her rejection. Ana was new to being the girl that a guy was trying to woo, she had never showed interest in any of the guys that had showed interest in her before, she'd never pay attention to any of the guys, but her own life. It was arguable about how she handled the situation, and it was even more debatable as to how she had reacted to the foreign feelings that she had harbored for the man that she had only been with intimately for a few days. She ran away from the feelings and she brushed away the man that she would eventually have to find space for in her life, because if she give up on him completely, she would be regretting it her whole life.

Ana didn't know if she would consider it lucky or not Christian wasn't the kind to give up easily. Now that she was going to step in to Christian's old school, she had an unsettling feeling that they were going to meet again.

Harvard was Christian's alma college, and he was a thriving businessman that had been successful in his investments, already gaining a lot from playing in the market. He was one lucky bastard to have obtained such a high result from only participating in the real world for just over two years. Even though his company started from scratch and was still building, but by putting himself out constantly, he had gained some recognizable acknowledgement from a handful of economist and professors, and the support he was getting was not less than the praises he was hearing. He hated to put himself out on the screen, hated to socialize. However, for the things that he was passionate about, he was making exceptions. He appeared in more magazines and had taken more interviews than he had ever thought he would. To further expanding his branches and pulling more under his umbrella, he had set his eyes on two universities, and one of them was Harvard.

Apart from his business life, he was still trying to have the only girl that he had ever laid eyes on that didn't seem at all interested in his courtship. Knowing that she would be in his school, he stepped out of his comfort zone and decided to make another exception for his girl.

Mia was a girl learning about fashion and designing, she said she wanted to go to Paris and work there in the futures. There were very little that had came out of her mouth about her family, apart from the fact that they were from Seattle and she had two brothers. To Ana, she seemed to be a girl that came from a rich family, though not spoiled but was still thoroughly loved in her childhood.

"Do you do any sports, Ana?" Mia asked out of curiosity, since their sporting season was going to start soon. Ana had saw posters for clubs and also for sports teams in the hallway already. She had her own schedule and she would follow people around, everyone seemed so nice and welcoming, she had been invited to so many different groups and tables during lunch and dinner that she had to change every time for the next meal.

"Yes, I play tennis and volleyball." Ana answered, changing out of her clothes and into a more comfortable pair so she could go to the gym, wanting to watch the tryout of the volleyball team.

"We have a volleyball team, but they're not exactly the pride of our school." Mia made a face that made Ana laugh. "I know some people who plays tennis, maybe you can go play with them? Did you bring your bat?" She asked, Ana's laugh grew when she heard Mia's choice of word for a tennis racket.

"It's a tennis racket, Mia."

"Same diff. I don't do sports, I rarely watch them, my brothers like to watch football though." Mia shrugged, not at all embarrassed at her lack of knowledge.

"I don't like football, but I like to ski, and I tried snowboarding."

"Really? My brother just bought a house in Aspen, and we're going their this Christmas, you should come and show off." Mia jumped up to her feet, danced around Ana when Ana was ready to leave for the tryout.

"Um… That'd be great, but…"

"No buts," Mia cut in enthusiastically, "my family's going to love you." She said before skipping off into the bathroom, letting her get going.

Ana sighed and made her way out of the room, Mia could be funny but also annoying sometimes. It made her think of Kate, who was equally loud and nosy.

"Hi, um, how do I get to the gym?" Ana stopped to ask two girls who she recognize from her business class.

"Oh, just go down the stairs and turn left…" one of them pointed the direction, Ana nodded and thanked them, but they weren't finished talking to her.

"Anastasia right?" Another one asked when Ana was about to leave.

"Yes, Anastasia Steele." Ana replied, sticking out a hand.

"You're the exchange student from Washington?" The one who told her the direction asked, Ana nodded with a polite smile.

"Do you know anyone in this school?" Now they were just trying to have small talks with her, but all she wanted to do was get to the gym and get to know about their sports facilities.

"No." Ana replied quickly, Christian never even flashed through her mind, even when she tried to think of someone. "I'm staying with a freshman though." She pointed out, thinking it was weird that she wasn't assigned with a girl her grade

"That's normal, we usually put exchange students with freshmen since they're all technically new and don't have roommates or asked to live by themselves." They explained and Ana nodded, thinking it was her cue to leave, but they started to throw questions at her.

"What are you majoring in, Anastasia?"

"Just Ana, please." She corrected before answering. "Business and Law."

"Double major?" They asked looking impressive. Ana nodded, really wanting to walk way by that moment.

"I only know one more person who double majored in those two, and he's year above us, but he dropped out." Ana stood there acting to be polite and pretending to be listening when she was glancing down at her watch subtly, taking note of how late she had been. Letting their words slip through and realizing that they had went into a daze or started to day dream, she quietly said her byes and slipped away.

Once she reached the gym, she could see people warming up. There were three courts dedicated to basketball and two for volleyball. One for male and one for female.

She wondered if she could also train with the school team, since she knew the clubs would be people that didn't make the team and it would be no fun for her. Walking toward the volleyball area, she had spotted some familiar faces, and one of them, she believed was called Lily approached her.

"Ana!" She called out loudly, making Ana cringe at the sudden attention she was gaining around the court. Lily waved her hand in the air frantically, trying to get her attention.

The last time she checked, Lily was a junior that majored in business and minored in literature. The girl was the best friend of Mia, they were always loud and giggly, though Ana couldn't say anything about it, but that didn't make her stop cringing sometimes. The junior had a darker shade of blonde than Mia, and she was a bit taller than Mia, though her grades weren't that good looking, at least she was passing.

Putting on a rather fake smile, Ana dropped her back next to the bleachers and made her way toward Lily and the rest of the team. She had a few glimpse at how the girls were playing, and she would admit that her girls back home were so much better than the girls here. When she learned that Lily was the captain of the team, she didn't know whether she should help out with the team or she should just keep her talent to herself but none of the choices were given to her.

"Do you play, Ana? I heard Mia said you play volleyball and tennis." Lily said, in the same excited tone that Mia used. Ana liked how the students in Harvard were friendly and welcoming, but she thought Mia and Lily were a little too excited and too friendly to her.

"Yeah, I play." Ana nodded shortly. She wasn't wearing a knee pad, thinking they weren't necessary, but it turned out that she had to dive down to save the ball more than she could ever imagine.

"Ana, you're so good at it. Oh my god, you can bring us to the championship game this season if you're from Harvard." The coach was gushing about her all session.

The compliments and looks thrown at her were making her uncomfortable, she was gaining way too much attention than an exchange student should have gained in the first few weeks of school. She wondered how she would survive through the year, she was already shining too bright for her own good at the beginning, there was no way she would make it through the year without getting a string of enemies behind her tail.

In her law class, they were told that there was a famous lawyer in Seattle who was willing to come up here to give them a lecture at the end of the week, and all students and staff from the law department were expected and required to attend. Ana was excited about it, but she wasn't sure if any of the other students were. To her, they seemed to have a bad memory of guest lecturers.

However, that didn't seem to be the only thing that would dampen students' mood, as she had found out later in her business class once the teacher announced a test. Ana herself wasn't a big fan of lectures or tests, but she knew the importance of them and she was willing to listen to lectures and take exams if that meant well for her future and for her studies. She would bear and tolerate all the parts that were bitter and let herself enjoy the fruit of good results.

"Ana, I know you're the exchange student, the test isn't going to take up the whole period, you can just do something on your own in here or you can come back here in an hour." The professor walked up to Ana quietly once she had handed out all the tests and instructing them not to open until told to do so.

"No it's okay, I'll stay." Ana replied with a smile. "Professor," she called, "can I have a copy to look at?" She asked shyly. "If you have any spare I mean." Ana added, the professor was surprised at the request, even the ones that loved burying their noses in books hated to take exams.

"Sure, you can try it too, but it's okay if you don't know the format." The professor placed the last copy in her hands on to her table and gave her a smile before walking back up to the stage and instructing everyone to start writing.

Ana opened the test paper and smiled to herself when she read the questions, they were everything that she knew, whether from last year or from the extra readings that she had done on her own over the summer.

Picking up her pen, she started to jolt down ideas and bullet point answers on the answer sheet. She didn't expect herself to be finishing everything and wasn't expecting herself to be writing an essay for an unfamiliar paper, but at least she could occupy herself by thinking about the questions over the hour.

By the time the teachers came around to collet the papers, she had found herself finishing up an essay. It was only one question and that was after she had spent half of the time listing out answers to every questions on the page. Then she had managed to finish the essay just in time. She didn't know what she should be writing but she was answering the way she thought was appropriate.

"As usual, names won't be revealed until I've graded them all." The professor declared, more for Ana to hear than for her students who had already know about the rule. "Do you want me to grade yours too, Ana?" She asked Ana as she collected hers in, Ana had used up all the papers given and felt too embarrassed to ask for more pages. She nodded shyly at the professor who offered another smile.

They started on a new project for the rest of the class and was informed that the next class would be on something new. Ana had been told she could do it too and the grade would be on her transcript for the year. Now Ana didn't regret taking the exam that she didn't know they were going to have, because if that was good, she could persuade the professor to add it to her profile so she could have better grades when she get back to her college.

Everything was perfect, she had made friends, was welcomed by everyone, impressed all of her professors. She was the epitome of the perfect student, even though she could be devious sometimes, but she had the best reputation in school and got famous real quickly.

Her next business class came before the lawyer lecture, and she was going to hear about their grades. Then they were going to work on their project after the new lecture had been given. She was working with Lily, because Lily had insisted that they work together. Ana didn't have any clue of what they were supposed to be doing, so went with the flow and allowed to be assigned into Lily's group. It turned out to be a nightmare, but there was no looking back.'

"I'm surprised yet disappointed at the same time to learn that the top scorer in our class today is," the professor said, taking the papers that they did last class, which was three days ago, out from her folder and unclipping them. "Our exchange student, Anastasia Steele."

When the class erupted with applause and every pair of eyes turned toward Ana, she froze on her spot. She clearly remembering herself listing out every possible answer she could think of, there was no elaboration or evaluation whatsoever, there was only bullet points. She remembered only answering one question thoroughly and thinking she didn't even cover every point there was.

"She's chosen the one question that no one has chosen," the professor started to explain as the class started to quiet down, "and provided us with a model answer. With her other answers, she had provided us with the perfect mark scheme." She praised, every eyes were once again on Ana, making Ana extremely shy and uncomfortable.

"Do you mind if I keep your test paper, Ana?" The professor asked, holding up the pages in her hand. Ana could only shake her head, not trusting her voice to speak up.

"Did Christian ever did that well?" Lily yelled out as the professor was handing them out the rest of the class. She was sitting next to Ana and she had gotten her paper, which was a passing grade, like usual, and she didn't seemed to be bothered at all. To her, getting into Harvard was already mission accomplished.

"He wouldn't have the courage to drop out and start his own business if he wasn't that good, right, Miss Lily?" The professor let Lily ponder, but that caught Ana's attention.

Bolting right up in her seat, she asked. "Wait, who's Christian?"

* * *

 **Next chapter will be longer.**

 **Hope I didn't ruin anything, the story is supposed to be light.**

 **Welcome to review, follow and favorite. I reply to reviews and also PMs.**


	3. Three: Meeting the Star

Meeting the Star

 _"Who's Christian?"_

"Oh sweetie, how can you not know who Christian Grey is." Lily chastised. "Especially when you're Mia's roommate. He's her brother." She continued, ignoring the snorts coming from the other students in the class that were directed at her. "He dropped out two years ago to start his own business and now he's already making millions of dollars as we speak." Lily continued, but Ana had detected an obsessive tone in her speech, perhaps it was universal fact that Lily had been crushing on Christian ever since she entered Harvard. But Christian never mentioned her, maybe she wasn't at all important to him.

"Lily." The professor called, getting her attention, telling het to shut up.

"One second, Professor." Lily shouted, quickly turning back to Ana, bragging about this man that she was crushing on like a celebrity. "He was the top student in both business and law, he double majored like you. He's just so smart, intelligent and good looking. I just love him. He'd be getting every girl that he wanted but he's just too cool. His dad is coming here next period."

"He's the lawyer?"

"Yes, Christian's family is just so successful and no wonder Mia got into Harvard too. They are just so talented, oh, I'm envious. I wish he's going to be visiting the school with him and coming to this department. I'm sure everyone missed him."

"Lily, that's enough." The professor barked, Lily adjusted herself in her seat and shut herself up.

Ana couldn't wrap her mind around the information that she had just received. How could she not piece everything together when Mia said her last name was Grey? It was so obvious now that her brain hurt. She shut her eyes trying to shut out her stupidity, but it wasn't helping. Christian had the same major as she did, she knew it, he had told her about it. She knew he studied in Harvard but dropped out, she knew he had a sister and a brother. He told her about his family living in Bellevue, but nothing clicked when Mia told her the exact same thing, just a bit vague. When the two girls in the hallways last time she tried to get to the gym gushed about the man who had the same double major as her, they were all fangirls of Christian Grey.

She thought she was stupid not to realize how influential Christian was even just with his face and body, now that she learned about his genius grades, it would be even harder to avoid female attraction. Especially now with the cool attire, showing up in all kinds of business conferences and meetings, putting himself out their to promote his business and companies, the whole female population of Harvard would be his fans.

As if on cue, the class ended with her still scolding herself for not putting two and two together, now that she had to face Carrick Grey, she didn't know how to act. Once she was carried out of the classroom by her feet subconsciously, she followed the crowd to the auditorium where the lecture would be held. Finding a seat next to a classmate that she had sat next to in class, she took a seat and made herself comfortable.

Taking out a phone just pretending to be occupied with something, when she heard a high pitch screech coming from the back entrance at the top. She recognized that noise immediately, since she had just been screeched at in class earlier. It was Lily.

"Oh my god, why didn't you tell me your brother's going to be here?" Lily said to Mia, Ana didn't even have to turn around to feel the two girls walking down the stairs, with Lily clinging onto Mia.

Rolling her eyes she looked up from her phone just in time to see the two girls walking past them.

"Ana, do you want to come down here to meet my brother?" Mia nudged Ana, getting her attention. Lily was pulling Mia impatiently already.

"Don't you two have class?" Ana stood up following them.

"But this is once in a life time, getting so close to him." Lily jumped, tugging on both of their wrists, dragging them down to the stage where Christian was seen in a suit talking to his father at the lecture stage. The Dean and the head of department was also there talking to them.

Ana wasn't at all thrilled to see him, she had been pushing thoughts about him out of her mind and the irrational of her blamed him for making her go through the pregnancy scare herself. The other part of her wanted to see him again, but didn't know how he would react.

"Christian." Mia called once they were within earshot, but once Christian looked up, his eyes locked with Ana's.

"Dean, Professor." Mia and Lily greeted the two teachers standing next to Carrick and Christian, after that, Lily's eyes quickly transferred and fixed onto Christian's face but he never once spared her a glance.

When Ana looked away from Christian's eyes, he narrowed his eyes slightly, he hated to see her reacting to him this way. Involuntarily, he took a step closer to Ana, but that sent the wrong message to Lily who lunged herself at him.

"Jesus, woman." Christian scowled, earning a chuckle from Carrick who was witnessing the exchange in amusement.

"Mr Grey, Christian." The Dean spoke up, getting the attention of the small group. "Allow me to introduce to you an exchange student." The Dean paused dramatically as he pulled Ana out of Mia and Lily's grasp.

"Anastasia Steele, from Washington State University. This is her third year in college. She is double majoring in Business and Law." Christian finished impatiently for the Dean, his eyes never leaving Ana, and the revelation silenced everyone. "Yes we know each other." He continued, answering the unasked question.

"Well, in that case, you must be aware of her reputation that is building in Harvard campus. Some compared her achievements to yours." The head of department said.

"Well, I wouldn't be so cocky for a start if I'm anything like him." Ana had finally spoken, her eyes finding his when she heard a deep humorous laugh coming from him.

"I didn't know that's how you think of me, Miss Steele." He interjected before anyone could chastise her for being 'impolite' to their 'guest'. An amusing glint in his eyes told everyone a different story between them than what was presented in front of them.

"I will leave you to it, Mr Grey, you may start when you're ready. Girls, I believe you are very late to your next class." The Dean said, turning to Mia and Lily who had been standing still for the past minute or so exchange. Mia was the first to regain her composure, she sent her brother a wink before dragging Lily away.

"Let's have a seat shall we, baby?" Christian beckoned, ushering Ana to a seat at the front row with a hand on her back. Ignoring the audience that they were receiving, he bent down and gave her a light peck on the lips before leading her fully to the seat.

Ana didn't protest when he put on a public display of affection on the stage in front of the whole department and also the endearment. At one point, she wanted to show off their relationship and she wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him loudly in front of Lily to show her who he belonged to, but she restrained herself, reminding herself that this was the man she spent a whole year trying to forget.

She remembered constantly getting texts and phone calls from him, she saved his number but never got the courage to call back or text back, she didn't know if she could even make it through the lecture without cringing and wishing the floor could swallow her. Now that it was his father who was delivering the lecture, she was even more embarrassed that she had met one of his parent when she had been spending a better part of the last year ignoring their son.

Once settled down, she didn't take away her hands from his hold, and didn't even budge when he placed their intertwined hand on his thigh. She thought all the issues could be addressed to later, but she was going to listen to what Carrick had to say.

Ana couldn't help but feel a little be uncomfortable being so close to Christian, but she didn't say anything, she convinced herself that maybe it was just Christian who wanted to pretend and put on an act for the rest of student body; though she couldn't figure out why he wanted to do so, but she had decided to act intimate with him before the students.

"Now can we please welcome our exchange student on stage to help me with a demonstration?" Carrick motioned Ana to go on stage, Christian narrowed his eyes at his father but let go of Ana's hand, not before placing a kiss on the back of it first. Carrick gave Christian an assuring look as if telling him, 'don't worry, I won't embarrass your girl in front of everyone'. "Now, let's give a round of applause to Miss Anastasia Steele." Carrick announced to the audience, Ana cringed when her full name was addressed, she hated it when people use it. For some reason, she liked it when people called her by Ana and only Ana, not even a last name.

Christian gave her a soothing smile, attempting to help her relax on stage. She had told him about her hatred of being under the spotlight and in the center of attention, and the spot she was at right now was the place she had been avoiding all her life.

The demonstration was easy to Ana, maybe not so much to the rest of the student body since Ana had been studying hard this summer.

"Now, you are a court assigned defending lawyer for the offender, and your client is a person who's been sued for adding an enormous amount money into his trust fund…"

Ana couldn't help but giggle at who Carrick was describing, when her eyes met Christian's, her giggles increased its volume, bringing out a laughter from Christian himself. He missed her giggles and the way tears would come out of her eyes when she was laughing too hard. She had also told him that she would cry if the wind was too cold outside, and he remember laughing at how adorable she would look.

"Well, you know who I'm talking about and you know the story." Carrick ended his description to Ana. She knew it was Christian's background story for starting GEH, and how he didn't get neither of his parents' approval before asking for support from his grandfather.

"Unfortunately, this story sounds very familiar to me." Ana said into the microphone that she was given.

"So, how would you defend this case?" Carrick asked, getting back to the question, noticing that no one in the room could understand their inside joke.

"I wouldn't, because I believe he has the ability to do it himself and besides, I believe he deserves to be sued." Ana said through her fits of giggles.

"You heard it, son, the best lawyer said you're hopeless." Carrick pointed to Christian who was in the front seat laughing while pretending to look offended.

"That's invasion of privacy. I've never said you can use my story, I could sue you for that." He shouted in protest, loud enough for the audience to hear. This, made them laugh.

"And I'm sure your girl is going to help me with the case." Carrick added with a wink. Ana blushed, hearing gasps from the crowd.

"If I really have to defend it, as in I get a super high payment and everything." She said, half getting serious and back on track.

"I'd give you the world if you'd have it." Christian said loudly, which was unexpected from any of them in the room.

"Shit, I wasn't expecting that from you." Ana murmured, but she forgot to remove the microphone, making everyone hear it. "Um…" She dragged her eyes away from him nervously and carried on with her answers.

"What the fuck was that?" Ana hissed in his ear, pulling him back down next to her when a lot of students came rushing to the stage to talk to Carrick and some swarming toward the door.

"I'm serious, Ana, just say the words and I'm all yours." Christian stated dead seriously making her question his motives.

"What in actual fuck are you doing here? Just trying to put on a show?"

"Trying to show my girl off." He shrugged.

"What has the business world done to you." Ana shook her head in disbelief.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Christian chuckled, finding her cute when her eyebrows knit together. "Since I know your schedule, and this is technically my domain, so you're going to be with me for the rest of the day."

"But I have volleyball." Ana protested.

"Do you think I'd let you miss that? I know you love to play volleyball and tennis okay, I just want to take you out so we can talk. Come to my apartment with me?"

"You have an apartment here?"

"I also have a house in Aspen."

"I know, but didn't you just start? You've just started your company for three years utmost, how can you afford two houses?"

"Three, I've got a penthouse in Seattle too." He added, "and it's called investment baby, I buy them when it's cheap and perhaps I get to make some profit when I rent it out a few years later.""I know what that means, asshole." She huffed.

"So I'm an asshole now." He raised an eyebrow at her, and giving her a light kiss on the tip of her nose, telling her that he wasn't at all offended.

"Always has been and always will be." She giggled.

"But I'll be your asshole if I have to be one. How do you know about the house in Aspen?" Ana's attention was on the crowd forming around Carrick and thinking she had some questions she wanted to ask, so when he asked her the question, she looked confused. "Mia, oh right, she's been telling me about you."

"I'm sorry, I wasn't listening, but what are you talking about? Were you just talking to yourself or are you asking me a question?"

"You can ask whatever you have to my dad later, we can have dinner together." Christian said as if reading her mind. "To answer your questions, I was asking you how did you know about my house in Aspen, then I realized you're Mia's roommate, the girl that Mia's gushing over every time she called me."

"I didn't know I'm a hot topic.""I don't like the fact that you're a topic for discussion, but I like it that you're hot." He winked, earning a slap across the chest.

"Now, come on baby, let's wait for the busy man outside. Maybe I can even give you a tour around the campus."

"But I have somewhere to go." She said, couldn't even remember the things that she had to do.

"What do you have to do?" He stopped to ask her, silently hoping that it was something he could take care of.

"I forgot, you're too distracting." She whined and pouted.

"Well, I do apologize, baby." He grinned and kissed on her pouted lips.

"I have classes, Christian." She said finally after she stood in his arms for a while as they waited for Carrick to reemerge from the student crowd.

"Well, skip them." He shrugged, his thumb playing with her bottom lip to prevent her from taking it in to her teeth.

"I am an exchange student for a whole year, so I think my attendance and my grades here count too." She defended herself, giving him a glare.

"I'll tell the Dean that I'm giving you a tour and to excuse you from your classes for the rest of the day." He shrugged again nonchalantly. "Or I can get my dad to do that."

"No, Christian. You're just a student here."

"I was, but now I'm investing in them.""You're giving them money? For what? To let your kid come in for school?" She raised an eyebrow only meaning it as a joke but realized the severity of it she stopped herself, but it was too late.

"If I have a kid, their mother will be you, but unfortunately I don't. Plus, I think my kid will be just as intelligent as their parents." He winked.

"You don't know what you're talking about Christian." Ana muttered, her eyes already out of focus and not in the mood of playful exchanges, pulling herself away from him and untangling herself from him, she took a step back.

"Where are you going, Ana?" Christian asked, trying to keep the panic out of his voice, silently berating himself for moving too fast and pushing Ana, but he also didn't want her to leave him just like that.

"To my next class." She said as she started to walk away. "I will have dinner with you and your dad tonight."

"He's not having dinner with us tonight, the school is treating him to something and I was thinking maybe I can take you out." He looked more nervous than he thought he would be, because of the way things had gone down, he didn't know what to expect from her anymore.

"Maybe sometime during the weekend? I'm staying on campus anyways, it's not like I can go off campus and live somewhere else since I don't have a place."

"You still haven't changed a single bit haven't you?" He chuckled, taking a step closer to her.

"What?""You still like to ramble." He smiled, pulling her back and cupping her face gently.

"Maybe, old habits die hard." She offered a small smile.

"You can stay in my apartment." He offered.

"What? No, I can't just do that." She was referring to the school more than what she thought about the situation. She wasn't sure if that was what she wanted with him because he had been messing with her head ever since meeting him on the first day.

"Yes you can, you're my girl, and my girl gets whatever she wants." He said firmly, but she wondered where he got all the confident to insinuate that she would agree to date him.

"And I'm gonna have all that apartment to myself during the weekends?" She asked, even though she had no plans to stay in a property that had nothing to do with her all year long. Secretly, she was hoping that he was going to stay with her, but she knew that would be too selfish to ask and he was a busy man trying to get his business done.

"You can also have me and my credit card anytime you want." That was a statement she hate, she had been hearing this from her birth father ever since she could remember, to her father's family, money was apparently everything.

"You're going to stay here for the whole year?" She decided to focus on the better part, the part where she hope she had heard correctly.

"I flew back up here for you, asked dad to do that stupid presentation just to get an excuse to see you. Do you think I'm the kind to come back to school as an alumni in the middle of a school year? So, of course, I'm going to be here most of the time just to be with you, plus, I am trying to setup something New York too. I'm still trying to find a place that is most suitable. Right now, I'm based in Seattle, but I think everything can be done over the phone and video conferences at this stage."

"That makes sense." She pondered seriously, but she was freaking out on the inside, she had never dreamed of having a man chasing after her just to get her to be with him, she didn't know how to react to this kind of wooing.

"It has to be." He hummed, planting a kiss on her lips.

"Can't keep your hands off me now, Mr Grey?" This was the countless time that he had kissed her and his hands had been touching her all the time since he met her down stage. She liked it, liked his kisses and his touch, but she didn't know if she should lead him on if they were bound to separate again.

"Can't keep my lips off your skin is a better way to put it, Miss Steele." He grabbed her waist and locked his hands behind them, pulling her in for a deeper kiss. She blushed at his words, but decided to ignore the burning sensation in her gut that she had never felt before.

"I don't want your money though." She said after pulling away. "You've worked so hard for it and we're just a couple who had a fling over the summer, met again coincidentally and we're not even dating." It was a sad truth, they weren't dating and she wasn't going to act all fine with a fling from time to time with the same guy, because that guy seemed to be pulling her heartstrings and she couldn't afford to see him leave again if she gave her heart to him.

"If you're my girlfriend, will you accept my card?" He asked sounding hopeful, and she knew he didn't get the point of her argument.

"No. You've worked so hard for it, just because you're pursuing me, it doesn't give me the rights to swipe your card around as if it's mine."

"I want to spoil you, baby. I know I'd be happy to see you swipe my card around." He grinned, genuinely hoping that she would take up with the offer.

"As if that wasn't obvious enough." She muttered to herself.

"I mean it, I want to spoil you and I want us to be more than just a fling. You've rejected me once in Washington when I went there just to celebrate your birthday. And here I am today, after a whole year. I thought I've given you enough space, it's time for me to try again."

"So you cornered me in Harvard just to take me out again?" She raised an eyebrow at the extent this man was going just for her.

"You made it sound so bad. Again, I don't think you can give me anymore excuses. I can have my ways here, Ana, and once you get back to Pullman, I'll have my ways there too." He warned playfully.

"And what, people are going to point at me and whisper behind my back because I'm this spoiled girl who's dating a powerful young man and I'll be getting all the privileges I want because my man can get them to me." She scoffed rolling her eyes.

"So what if that's true." He questioned seriously.

"Then I won't be dating you." She answered defiantly.

"What? Why?" His voice was almost too loud that it would grab all the attentions from the people all the way at the top of the auditorium.

"Christian, I don't want your money, I don't want your fame, I don't want your power, I just want you. Do you have any idea how tough it was for me to go through that pregnancy scare with Kate last summer?"

"You were what?"

"Fuck, why do I keep blurting things out in front of you." She groaned. "Yes, my period was late after our fling that summer and the pregnancy test I took turned out to be positive, so I went to the doctors and they told me the test was wrong."

"Shit, I'm so sorry baby."

"You were busy and it was, after all, just a fling between us. You were just this intruder that came to my house that day at the beginning of the summer and dumped your shit on me as I ranted your ears out, and we had a one-night stand.

"We knew that what we've started was bound to end, so none of us took it seriously, though I cant deny the feeling that I felt the day you left. We knew it was going to be short, so I don't fucking get it when you showed up at Clayton's demanding to see me, and even after that, you kept calling me and texting me throughout the year. Now, you came all the way here. It took me a whole fucking year to forget you, and I thought I succeeded, until today when Mia's nosy best friend, Lily started to fangirl over you and acted all obsessed. I didn't even realize that Mia's your sister, her stories about her family never clicked with anything in my mind. I didn't even question when she invited me to Aspen this Christmas, saying her family is going to love me."

"Because they will, and because you're _my_ girl, you are going to come to _my_ house with _me_ this Christmas."

"I never agreed to be yours, Christian. What I've always known is that what we had was a fling."

"What if I want something more than fling with you? What if I want a lifetime commitment with you, and only you?" He asked with the most sincere look in his eyes, and the more she was silent, the more pleading it became.

"A lifetime commitment, huh? I'll think about it." She said quietly and unsure of how to take up the proposition.

"I hate it when you say that, because that's going to be a no eventually." He pouted, but deciding not to push her any further.

"Suck it up then." She huffed playfully, turning around feeling another presence, just in time to see Carrick walking out of the auditorium.

"Got what you want, son?" He gave Christian a knowing look and then gave Ana a slight nod, in which Ana returned.

"Nope, not at all." Christian gave his dad a reply while giving Ana a pointed look.

"I need to go." Ana cleared her throat, getting the attention of both men. "I'll see you two around, I guess?" She asked.

"No, I'm taking you out after your class. You'll be back for your training." Christian retorted quickly.

"And I'm crashing your date." Carrick grinned cheekily at his side. She rolled her eyes and headed toward the academic building.

There was a split second where she thought about ditching last period, but she blocked it out quickly.

On the way to her classroom, she noticed stares from people coming from all the direction possible. She knew only the people in the law department saw her interaction with Christian and Carrick, and it was only just less than an hour since the lecture ended. She wondered how fast words spread in Harvard? Perhaps she liked the quiet small university in Washington better.

Taking a seat at her usual spot, she took out her notebook and other relevant materials and slouched in her chair, resting her head on the table. People walked in and out of the classroom, piles of stuff were getting more and more on each table in the room, but she paid no attention to any of them. Her mind was somewhere else.

Her phone on the desk next to her vibrated, and she let her mind drift to the new notification wanting to forget about the man she was thinking about. Unfortunately, the text that she received was from none other than the Christian Grey she was trying to forget about.

He just sent her a text telling her that he would be picking her up from her classroom, she rolled her eyes at the one kiss at the end of it. Her problem right now had nothing to do with the abnormal amount of attention that she was receiving which was making her squirm uncomfortably, but it was the question of how could he just approach her in front all the student body and the teachers acting like they were in a relationship. On the one hand, she was annoyed that he didn't take the hint when she ignored his messages and everything for a whole year after meeting in Clayton's, but one the other hand, she was glad that he had the courage to keep pursuing her even after her half-hearted rejection.

The rejection was half-hearted to her, because there was a part of her that didn't want to be separated from him, but other than the sentimental aspect, the more rational part of her wanted to keep him as a speckle of dust in her history. What she couldn't deny was the fact that the mere few days she had spent with him were the best few days of her life, she had never felt so alive and happy before.

It was unfair of him to just walk in as if they were dating and then ask her out on a date, she wasn't easy, even though playing hard to get was never her intention, but he was just too abrupt. She didn't want to accept his date, and she didn't want to reignite the flames between them. She was confused the first time she saw him in Clayton's shop trying to take her out, now that he was finding every possible excuse he could find to be close to her was kind of giving her the creeps. She liked the guy, really liked him since the incident in the summer; she knew the guy, knew about his darkest secret, just like he knew hers.

All those things that they shared with each other and her strong feelings toward him was scaring her. She had insecurities when it comes to dating, she had dated a few guys before, but she had never committed to any of them completely, she feared to have a broken heart like Kate had had that made her sworn off love. Now come to think of it in hindsight, she'd rather Christian leave her the way it was supposed to be, she'd rather remember him as a fling in the summertime. She didn't know what extent this guy would go on her, and she didn't know if she could be what he wanted. After all, they were simply just two strangers who had sex over the summer. Ignoring the details of how they both felt about one another, they were not meant to see each other again in their lives. Ana was convinced that even if she was all in, there was very little she could contribute to the relationship seeing as how hard he was trying just to woo her. It was not helping to learn that he had been very popular in Harvard and would get any girl he wanted just by a snap of his fingers, but he was too cold and cool.

Right before the professor announced the start of the class, Ana's thoughts had came to a conclusion, and that was, she would go on that so-called date with him, but she wasn't going to enjoy any of it, she wasn't going to let him coax her into whatever romantic shit he was going to pull, she was going to talk to him and force him to spill out whatever plan he had with her.

Determined, she plucked herself off the desk and let her mind focus on class.

The class went by quickly, and Ana was given the assignment to make a presentation in two weeks in the auditorium to share her knowledge on international business. She didn't know why she needed a schedule full of class for one day, and almost a free day the next, but it was Harvard, anything was possible, she thought to herself. Then again, the presentation wasn't her biggest concern, she was a good public speaker and a good negotiated, the topic of the presentation was also something that she had learned by herself already. Her business classmates were in awe of her knowledge and so did her classmates in her other major.

Ana thought everyone in Harvard would be studying as hard as she was so she tried extra hard over the summer, though the knowledge she gained paid off as she knew the majority of the content already, but as much as a comfortable public speaker that she was, she didn't like being under the spotlight.


	4. Four: Celebrity Life At Harvard

**Please excuse all mistakes, this is a work of pure fiction.**

* * *

Celebrity Life At Harvard

Gathering her stuff, she had gone through her notes, her mind going through the time table for her evening as she had find sticking to a strict time schedule was better for time management. The class was soon emptied and she was just about to head to the door when the door opened itself.

"Christian, my boy." The professor stepped down the lecture stage and went for the back door before Ana could even make a sound at him. "Why didn't you tell me you're visiting? We could've had lunch together." The old man patted Christian in a fatherly manner while taking Christian's outstretched hand for a firm handshake.

"My father was here to give a lecture for the law students." Christian explained to the professor, a polite smile on his lips. Ana shouldered her bag and slowly moved toward the duo, standing closer to Christian subconsciously as if she would feel more secure and comfortable around him rather than the professor.

"Oh, here's our exchange student from Washington. I've heard a lot about her over the sheer weeks that she had been here, and she had become quite famous in her majors." The professor gestured to Ana, introducing her proudly.

Christian smiled fondly at Ana and then nodded at the professor. "So I've heard." He said, agreeing to the old scholar.

"Why don't you come to her presentation two weeks from today? I'm sure she'll be giving an outstanding lecture." The professor continued, not leaving anytime soon.

When Christian turned to look at Ana, her face paled and she looked away trying to keep her mind occupied on something else other than thinking about how big of a crowd she would be getting next week. If she failed her mental prep before a public speaking, she wouldn't be able to free-style and improvise through her speech, and whenever she stick to her script, her speech turned to shit. She needed to be unaware of her audience and not memorize her entire script word by word, that way, she would be in her usual stance and that would show off her public speaking skills.

The professor told Christian her topic, she wanted to tell them that she was standing right there, but not wanting to draw attention to herself, she remained silent beside Christian, praying for him to be finished soon. She had no idea what this professor had with him, and she wasn't interested in their conversation either, but from the bits and pieces that she was hearing, she knew that they were talking about his thriving business. They were deep in conversation and Ana didn't want to be rude and interrupt them, so her eyes kept darting from places to places in the room and occasionally the door.

"I'm sorry." Ana looked at the ringing phone in her hand, then at the two men who turned their attention to her the moment it started ringing. "I'll be waiting for you outside." She mumbled another unnecessary apology to the professor and then directed the last part at Christian before accepting the call and exiting the room.

"I'd love to have a longer conversation with you, Professor, but I really need to go, Ana is waiting for me." Christian said apologetically, wanting to be done with the talk too.

"Oh, she's with you. I thought she has something to ask me." The professor joked, trying to hide his disappointment by cracking a lame, awkward smile.

"I'll be here for her speech." Christian smiled politely and shook his hand once again. "Until then, professor." He waved at him before stepping out of the door to look for the girl that was now waiting for her.

"Why didn't you do anything? Damn, I'm hurt boy." Ana put a hand on her chest, feigning a pained expression while the blonde boy laughed.

"Katie didn't tell a soul, how am I supposed to be sure?" He defended himself. "I was positive that it's not the Ana that I know when I hear your name everywhere in this building and at the law department. I thought you wouldn't let yourself to build a reputation that fast in a new place."

"Yeah, it was unexpected." Ana sighed. "I tried too hard I guess. I thought Harvard was some kind of top elite school where everyone in here is a genius, so I didn't want to be left out, but I guess, they're just normal people."

"You need to broaden your horizon, girl. I mean it. Katie should bring you out next time she goes travelling." He took out his phone. "Now, explain this." He thrusted the phone into her hand with a picture on it.

"How did you get this? Dammit, I feel like there are paparazzi in the school now."

"Oh, you don't get to avoid the question, girlie." The blonde man snickered half-seriously. "Answer me. Why didn't you tell me you've got yourself a boyfriend?"

"Because I haven't, Ethan." Ana squeaked, fearing that her voice might be too loud for Christian to hear, since she was just outside the classroom.

"Really? Then explain this." Ethan swiped across the screen with his thumb and pointed at the picture that was taken from the side, seemingly from the stage aiming at the front row of the auditorium. It was a snapshot that capture the short moment of a kiss that Christian planted on her lips after the lecture. One of his arm was tightly wrapped around her waist and another one was behind her neck, pulling her close. Ana could feel the heat rising to her cheeks.

"Where did you get this?"

"A little birdie sent it to me." Ethan skirted away from the question, not giving her the original source. "Dude, really, just tell me, is he a good kisser?"

"The best." Ana answered dreamily. She had to admit that they looked cute in that photo, especially with him in a suit, he looked more handsome than the photos on the magazine and in the newspapers.

"Damn, there's no chance for me then." Ethan pouted.

"Did you think he was gay?" Ana asked, bursting out laughing when Ethan looked unfazed at the question, thinking there was nothing wrong with the theory.

"Everyone that doesn't know him prior to his appearance in the business circle thought he was homosexual, at least from all the pictures that everyone managed to snag." He shrugged.

"That's because my girl's not with me." A third voice cut short the catching up between the two friends.

"Holy shit!" Ana jumped. "When did you come out?" She quickly regained her composure and raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

"Been out here for a while now." Christian replied with an eye roll.

"Then why didn't you come find me?" She asked. "Or, were you eavesdropping?"

"A bit of both." He shrugged, not ashamed of overhearing the conversation earlier. He was trying his best to not let jealousy get the best of him before he saw that Ethan didn't appear to be interested in Ana.

Ana narrowed her eyes at him. "What the fuck were you thinking? Even though it's not a private conversation that I was having, but letting your insecurities get the better part of you and eavesdrop? You're scooping lower and lower each day, Grey."

"Can we go now, Ana? My dad's already in the car." Christian sighed and avoided the deathly glare from her.

"We should have lunch some day, or dinner to catch up." Ana didn't follow Christian as he made his way toward the entrance, but he chose to wait for her at the door instead of acting like he domineering ass that he wanted to be by dragging her away.

"If our schedules don't clash, then sure. I'll text you my schedule." He nodded excitedly. "And I need to tell you something."

"Can I know it now?" Ana took a step closer as if he was going to tell her some secret. He shook his head mysteriously, Ana pouted. "Just a sneak peak?" She pleaded.

"I met a girl." He shrugged nonchalantly, completely dismissing Ana's teasing smile, satisfied with Ana's pouting.

"You what?" Ana almost squealed. "Sheesh, talking about not keeping you up to date about my personal life." She scolded playfully. "Who is she? Or he?" She added with a giggle.

"He? Ana Steele, your imagination is enlarging to a scale that matches no one's." He shook his head in amusement.

"Okay, okay, I just don't want to assume anything so I won't offend you."

"Yeah, speaking of not offending me, I am still holding on the grudge against you." He reminded, and that made Ana's smile falter a little before becoming even brighter once she recalled the event that he was referring to.

"I was just taunting you." Ana whined, she had been trying to get him to forgive her for embarrassing him and spilling out his little dirty secret the summer he graduated from high school.

"Yeah, but you don't have to tell my whole family. You could've just pretend that you don't know. Katie didn't even utter a word."

"That's because Kate doesn't want to get in trouble, she has to deal with your parents longer than you." Ana defended.

"Then what role were you playing? Because as far as I know, I did intend to take a gap year." He argued.

"Gap year my ass." Ana snorted un-ladylike. Christian was growing impatient as he paced back to get her, she had completely forgotten about him and the car that was waiting for her. "I'd like to see where you are if you didn't take that gap year because of some stupid bimbo that you claimed you've fell in love with."

"We were in a really good position…" He started to defend his disastrous relationship.

"High school sweet heart?" She quoted him from that day. "Yeah, coming from a player who does not believe in true love, let alone teenage love." She scoffed, when she saw Christian out of the corner of her eyes, she sucked in a breath nervously as she had completely forgotten about him. "Text me or call me." With that, she gave Ethan a small wave before reaching for Christian's hand in an attempt to calm him and apologize for being late.

Ethan was a year older than Ana and Kate, he was the typical jock in high school. The epitome of a male model. Blond with blue eyes, though his hair was a little bit more rose gold than the rich golden blond color. He had been like this big brother to Ana since Kate brought her home once for a sleepover. They practically grew up together. For a while, Kate thought Ana had a crush on him, but was later proven to be false. Then again, Ethan would have one-night stands, but he had also had girlfriends. Ana and Kate would always pretend to not know him when a scandal about him came out, but when he was all popular and well received in the community, the two being the bitches that they were would kiss his ass just to show off their close ties. Ethan was used to their strategies, not that he had cared either, they were family to him after all.

While Kate and Ana were the perfect students in adult eyes, Ethan was a pain in the ass. In his senior year, he had met this newly transferred girl, they hit it off at the beginning and marked the beginning of his longest relationship. It lasted for more than a year, and they seemed so good together. They went to prom and decided to take the graduation trip together. The girl came from a rich family background, and because he wanted to spend more time with his girl, he had told his parents that he would be taking a gap year, but in actual truth, he was just going to go travel the world with the girl. Ana joked about it during a family dinner and nearly got him in trouble, but he was thoroughly embarrassed. When he got dumped, Ana soothed him but didn't hide her hatred a single bit.

"Whatever, Steele. Enjoy your date with the best kisser." Ethan shouted behind Ana's retreating back.

Ana gave him the finger and that was the last time she turned back. She didn't dare look at Christian directly, but through her eye lashes, she knew that he saw her offensive gesture. Wondering if he was still mad at how she kept his father waiting or if he would do something about the bird that she flipped at Ethan, but what came out next was not in the choices above.

"Best kisser, huh?" Christian whispered in her ear as he pulled her closer to his side and escorted her down the hallway. "Let me just prove that to you." He mumbled as they showed up in front of the car, instead of opening the door and climbing in, he spun her around and pinned her on the car. His arm wrapped around her waist and his other palm behind her lower neck.

"Hmm…" Ana's mind turned into a mush the minute his warm, soft lips touched hers. All the protests and the things that she wanted to tell him dispersed, everything she wanted to talk about with him left her mind and there was nothing that she didn't want more than to never let him stop what he was doing.

There was a part of her that was going to remind herself to talk about all the issues between them, but that sensible part shut off quickly when his tongue swept her lower lip asking for permission.

"There really isn't a time when I stopped thinking about you, Ana. I know you probably wanted nothing to do with me after I cornered you in Clayton's a year ago, I know it was abrupt and I was just being impatient." He started to explain, telling her his side of the story and everything she had been wondering, once they broke apart needing to breath after the intense make out session that was induced by a simple kiss. He was still panting slightly, but not as bad as her. His hands were still around her, she couldn't feel the cold hard metal of the car window as his hand isolated her back from the material. She was aware that her arms were locked behind his neck and that they were still very close to each other, but the look in his eyes made her stop in the process of pulling away.

"I don't blame you for not answering me or deleting my texts, and I apologize for obtaining your personal information from the school system, but I was desperate. I wanted to see you so bad. Not only you've saved me from drowning myself in sorrow and made me see the world differently, but you've also made me feel something that I've never felt before. There was just one goal for me once my company started to grow steadily, and that was to find you. I don't know how you felt about me back in the summer, but I liked you so damn fucking much, it's so hard for me to leave you." He continued, and she made no attempt to stop him from the speech, she was stunned by his confession to react to it.

"I'm so sorry for not being there for you when you thought you were pregnant." His eyes looked full of remorse, and she couldn't bear the look, so she just pulled his head down and let it rest in the crook of her neck.

"Please, Ana. You are so much more than a fling to me." He pulled away from her neck and looked at her pleadingly. "It took looking at you being so comfortable with Ethan to realize just how much you mean to me. I am sorry for being a prick and the asshole that pushed you too quickly." He said slowly. "Just, tell me, do you feel the same about me?"

Ana was still in a daze, she stared at him for the longest time, urging her lips to move and her vocal cords to work, but none seemed to be in control.

"Please say something, Ana, anything. I'm begging you. Even if it's a rejection." He begged. "I know you're doubting me. We know each other's deepest secrets, we know things about each other that others would never know. I've confided you and trusted you with everything that was troubling me, and I will be telling you about them if you will just accept me. I trust you with everything."

"I- I don't know, Christian." At that moment, Ana let her insecurities and her doubts cloud her head. She dropped her arms and untangled her fingers from his hair and dropped them to her sides. The 'what-ifs' running through her head. She didn't know if she committed to him, what would happen if they break up. They didn't know the most basic thing about one another, yet they knew every little secret about each other. She didn't know if he was just taking her so that his personal insecurities wouldn't be exposed to public or was he genuinely taking an interest in her. She doubted his intentions, even if they were the last thing she should be doing, she had seen her friends around her going through way too many heart breaks that she had believed that guys that were good looking, kind, caring and nice could turn into a monster and act like a fucking bastard overnight.

Back in high school, she had tons of friends that used her as their therapist and dumped all their shits on her, cried on her shoulder and asked her for post-breakup advices. She, herself, had never been in a serious relationship before, but she had been the dumpster bin for all of her friends, especially Kate.

"Okay." Christian sighed in defeat, the broken look in his eyes was enough to dismiss all the doubts that she had seconds ago, she felt bad for putting him through that just because of her stupid insecurities.

Moving aside to let her stand on her own, he opened the car door for her to get in, without a word, he walked to the other side and slid in. Closing the door, the car took off.

The tension in the car was unbearable, and even Carrick could sense it since he hadn't made a sound nor a comment since they got in, he didn't even greet his son verbally, only with a slight nod of his head. Ana, on the other hand didn't even discover him until she saw his face in the rearview mirror on the side.

The more she thought about what he had confided to her and the more she thought about her reaction, she felt like a bitch to him. When she turned to look in his direction, she saw that he was looking out the window with his brows creased. The more she stared the more she wanted to reach out and smooth it with her thumb and make him feel better.

 _But, was she ready to commit into a serious relationship?_

That question had made her turn her head back to face the window, her courage once again disappeared along with the buildings that moved out of the sight.

Just when she wasn't thinking, she felt a fingertip brushing on her hand. She looked down in her lap and followed the hand, she saw that Christian was looking at her. His hand looked hesitant, as if asking for permission to hold hers. Without a second thought, she reached out and grasped his hand in hers, lacing their fingers together willingly and let it rest in her lap as she turned her attention back to the street outside.

She felt his hand tightened around hers, making her feel like it would be the last time they'd ever see each other. Her head snapped toward his when that feeling became so strong from their intertwined hand, she almost believed that it was what was going through his mind.

Scooting closer to him, she lifted up their hands and placed a soft lingering kiss on the back of his hand. Her lips grazing his knuckles softly and gently. The gesture made his head turn.

"I want to be with you, Christian." She whispered to their intertwined hands while her eyes locked with his. She saw his brows crease, forming a deep 'V' in the middle, this time, she didn't refrain herself from touching it. Lifting up her hands, she used her thumb to caress his skin and easing out the wrinkles. "You know about my insecurities that's why I have to think." She explained to him, they were not face to face and very close to each other. "But I do want to be with you, Christian." She clarified. "I may have fears about fully committing to this relationship, but I mean it when I said I want to be with you. Give me some time and I think we'll find ourselves in a better place. I hope to build a relationship on trust, and I hope you'll give me time to trust you."

"So it's a yes?" His voice was barely audible.

"Yes." She nodded.

"You agreed to be my girlfriend?" He asked a little louder this time, just to make sure he wasn't dreaming and imagining this exchange.

She nodded, and instead of answering it verbally again, she brought her lips up to his and pressed a firm kiss on him just to reassure him of what he had just learned.

"I will seriously think about the offer of the apartment though, Christian." She added, and then looking at him through her eye lashes shyly, fearing to see the hurt on his face when she said it, not wanting him to take it as a rejection.

"Okay." He replied. "One step at a time, baby." He then explained his decision, which soothed Ana. Perhaps it was good that he realized just how hard he was pushing her with the decision. After all, she was right, they were practically strangers to one another. Despite the closeness they felt after their separation, he still shouldn't act on them.

They reached their destination in a comfortable silence, with Ana snuggling to him and his arm draped protectively over her waist. Carrick sat in front smiling to himself after overhearing the conversation between the young couple. It was refreshing to learn that his son was so smitten with a girl that he had met briefly over one summer.

…

Christian walked her to her room and giving her a brief kiss on the lips before letting Ana turn around to insert the keys

"How was your date, Ana?" Mia jumped to the door when she heard the keys turning in the socket, but when the door opened, Ana wasn't alone. "Christian, what are you doing here?"

"I feel so welcomed by my sister." Christian rolled his eyes, walking into the room and taking a seat on Ana's bed as he watched Ana move around the room, gathering her stuff, then heading to the bathroom to change. She hadn't spoken a single word yet.

"Did you do something to her? Why isn't she talking?" Mia jabbed her thumb in the direction that Ana had just went and then turned back to look at her brother in an accusing manner.

"No, I've done nothing to her, Mia." Christian laid on his back, staring at his sister waiting for more accusations. "I know you're going to question me about it. She's just in a rush to get to volleyball practice, I held her up for a little longer than I planned."

The bathroom door opened, Ana stepped out in her uniform and reached for her jacket before grabbing her water bottle. Before she head to the door, she went to Christian, who was still laying on her bed, pecked him on the lips. She gave Mia a salute with two fingers then closed the door behind her, leaving the two siblings in the room.

"You two are a thing now?" Obviously she wouldn't miss the small interaction between the two.

"Seems like it." Was all Christian said with a subtle shrug. His lips were curly up involuntarily.

Ana reached the gym only to realize that there were more people playing volleyball than she had anticipated. She quickly found Lily and the girls that she had played with a few days ago.

Lily was giving her a cold-shoulder, and she suspected it had everything to do with Christian, but fortunately, Lily was the only person that was putting on this silly act. The others were still her admirers.

"We're playing the club today." The coach came out to announce to the huddle that they had formed around the female coach.

"Who am I?" Ana asked pointing to herself. "I mean who am I playing for?"

"Play for the school team." One person yelled, but Lily scowled.

"Since she can't be playing in our league games, I think we should stick with the team that is going to participate in the games and tournaments." Lily explained, while the coach nodded her head, thinking that it was a reasonable explanation. Ana knew her intention, but she didn't care, as long as she get to play, she wouldn't care who she was playing for.

"What position do you play, Ana?" The leader from the club asked once they were told that Ana was going to play for them.

"I am usually a spiker, but I can play any position you need." She answered. The captain sorted out the rest of the team and had managed to squeeze Ana on to the field as the sixth starting lineup. Ana thought her reputation hadn't spread to the club, she thought she was only known in the varsity team, but when a home crowd started to settle on the bleachers, and a few raising a banner that had her name on it Ana smiled to herself.

 _Perhaps it was time to prove herself._

Ana started at the back and as usual, the club served first. Deciding to cut them some slacks, Ana didn't hit her signature serve. The ball reached the back court, just grazing over the net. It wasn't even spinning, and the speed was relatively slow.

Lily went for the incoming ball, but she dived out a second too late as the ball reached the ground, bouncing off on the line. The referee signalled a point for the club as the varsity team repositioned themselves. There were now five people standing at the back waiting for service.

Ana was felt bad for embarrassing the school team with the first ball, so she didn't jump for the next service, just to slow down the ball and let everyone warm up. Her hardcore ball wasn't missed by the audience, since some were speculating the reasons behind her softer serve in the second time.

"Hey, bro!" A guy from the bleachers yelled, standing up and waving his hand at the pair that just entered the gymnasium.

"Hi Cal." Christian gave him a bro hug, greeting his former roommate, then he said a quick hi to the chick sitting next to Cal. Mia was quick to move to the girl's side, they seemed like they know each other.

"What brings you here? And is that Mia?" Cal nudged him playfully. It was common knowledge that Christian would never show up in the gym for a game, any game, let alone a women's volleyball game. He was more of a competitive kind, and if it was a game of American football, then he would be the first to take a seat, but he wasn't at all interested in any other sports.

"Yes that's Mia." Christian answered, rolling his eyes at what Cal was hinting. "And you didn't tell me you've got yourself a chick." He diverted the attention away from him.

"Nah, that's just some exchange student that I am assigned with, need to show her around and shit." He waved his hand dismissively. Christian had forgotten that he used to live with the golden boy in their department. Cal was what every teacher liked about a male student, he wasn't nerdy, but he got good grades; he was good looking and very supportive, but he wasn't an asshole like those stereotypical popular guy. He was the epitome of a perfect blonde. Smart and handsome.

"Is she crushing on you?" Christian nudged his chin toward the girl that was now talking actively with Mia.

"Hell if I know." Cal said, it was his usual answer when he got asked the question. He was a private person that liked to keep everything to himself. From what he had told Christian, he had been crushing on a girl in his high school for the whole four years, and no one knew. He had been hiding his feelings, even when people told him that his crush liked him, he made no move to call dibs. "But I call dibs for that brunette chick over there playing for the club." He said, pointing at Ana who had just served for the second half.

"Which one?" Christian tried to prolong the time and think of something to say.

"The one who's friends with the varsity team but got kicked to help out the club. There, she just spiked from the line and got them a point." Cal's eyes followed Ana's every move, he was really in awe of her. That was when Christian decided he needed to say something.

"Too late, man. That's my girl you're ogling at." Christian said smugly. Cal turned his head with a dropped jaw.

"Dude, when are you going to tell me that you've found a girl." Cal punched him in the arm.

"I just got her back today. My brother doesn't even know about my girlfriend, what makes you think I'd tell you first?" Christian gave him an offended look before shifting his focus back to his girl. "Why are you sitting at the top of the bleachers? It's so far from the court."

"I didn't choose the seat, she chose it. I'm supposed to make sure she doesn't get lost, remember?" Cal said, pointing at the girl who was now watching the game with Mia in silence subtly.

"Yeah, right. Maybe she's expecting you to make a move or something you know? Bringing you to a place so hidden." Christian suggested playfully.

"You've changed, Grey. Didn't know love can do this to one, huh?" Cal sighed dramatically, giving Christian a disapproving look.

"Who said anything about love." Was all Christian muttered, he wasn't sure how he should answer it since he did realize the changes that occurred to him since he met Anastasia.

"What's her name?" Cal stopped him from pondering over the small question.

"Anastasia Steele." Christian replied proudly.

"Why's her name so familiar?" Cal wondered out loud.

"Because she's quite famous here already. She's got a whole bunch of fans already." Christian said, pointing at the banners on the bleachers across. Surely there were some that had Ana's name on it, and there were also Lily's and some other girls', but it was rare to see Ana's name.

"Damn." Cal muttered. "Can I meet her later?"

"Sure."

"Oh and I thought she's with Ethan." Cal then thought of something. "Ethan? This other exchange student from some small town somewhere I can't remember. I saw him looking at her quite often."

"Ethan is Ana's best friend's older brother. They grew up together. Yeah, I got real worked up today when I saw them together." Christian admitted sheepishly.

"Dude. Bro, seriously, you never get jealous."

"Yeah, but I guess I've never been so smitten with a girl before, too." He replied nonchalantly, but his friend was freaking out from his confession.

"Now I really need to see her."


	5. Five: Always Competitive

**Please excuse all mistakes, this is a work of pure fiction.**

* * *

Always Competitive

Christian's profile had been displayed on multiple magazines all over Seattle, and he was now the pride of Harvard. All the teachers and students that despised him for dropping out of this prestigious school came back kissing his ass. They were congratulating him, offering him a place to share his journey to his success, but even for a person that didn't hold grudges, he declined the offers solely for the reason of not wanting to.

Rumors had it that he was in the gym for a girl, who he claimed to be his girlfriend. Ever since that night in the gym watching the volleyball game between the club and the team, he had been the center of discussion. In addition to the exposure of the relationship, the fact that he had been recognized by multiple companies in the country had also brought him attention in school. He once again, appeared in the student newspaper and his picture was plastered all over the business department of the building.

Every passerby would stop and read the article written about him that was pinned on the bulletin, and there were only two girls that weren't remotely interested in the articles and photos on the wall.

"You totally killed it, Ana." It had been Mia's new goal to make Anastasia believe that she was better than everyone in volleyball in school. Since that game she had brought her brother to, Mia hadn't stop bugging Ana about her skills. "Lily got so jealous that night, you have no idea."

"Yeah I don't, but I'm sure that's not the only thing she's jealous of." Ana muttered under her breath, but the dorm room was too quiet for Mia to not catch it.

"I know, she's had this crush on Christian since they started school in Harvard." Mia sighed, not completely unaware of Lily's cold-shoulder attitude toward Ana. "I've known her since middle school, and we've always been in touch. She was gushing about him the first week she got here, because she was sitting next to him in class. Then she acted like this stalker and started to dig through every information she could find about him." Mia continued, rolling her eyes, guess all people need an ear to rant to from time to time.

"Why are you laughing?" Mia stopped once she realized that Ana was smiling, the smile soon turned into a chuckle, then it turned into a full belly laugh.

"Nothing." Ana giggled. "Just thinking." She said, but when Mia didn't buy the lame excuses, she calmed down and said. "Okay, I'm just thinking about how I am not the only person that likes to rant and ramble when it comes to things that we are really frustrated about."

"Of course, everyone does that." Mia didn't know why it was so humorous to this friend of hers.

"Yes, that's what I argue, but your brother seems to have a different opinion on this." Ana explained.

"Oh?"

"He argues that I am the single most talkative woman when it comes to rambling and ranting." She said, remembering their conversation back in the summer.

"That's cute."

"Not so cute anymore if you know the circumstances we were under." Ana sighed, shaking her head but not disclosing more details. "So, what made you start that rant on Lily?"

…

"You ready, Ana?" The old professor who was more than appreciating Christian's work so far approached her after coming in to the empty auditorium where Ana was doing her mental prep routine before a speech. She was pacing on the stage, a remote control stick in her hand and her head toward the ground as she went through her main points in her head in order.

"Yes." Ana replied shortly, but her mind was still occupied with the content that she was supposed to be covering. Her computer had already been set up at the table and plugged in. The monitor for the projector was still turning on slowly. Her pacing slowed when she saw people starting to pile in.

Ana smiled at a few familiar faces where they smiled back. She had been in this school for over a month now, but while everyone seemed to know her talent and how good she was at volleyball and her majors, she didn't know half the students that she shared her classes with. She tried so hard to learn everyone's name, but most people just simply didn't give two fucks about introducing themselves. With the fact that her boyfriend was now Christian, it wasn't helping with toning down her popularity.

She smiled nervously at the crowd that had settled down in front of the stage that she was standing on. She was nowhere near ready to just delve into her speech, not when the tension in the room was high due to her nervousness.

There were gossips about her relationship with Christian, theories regarding how their relationship would go. Mia had told her all about it. People had thought that it would only be a fling, since Christian was no longer a student in Harvard, and Ana would be leaving New York in a year. No one seemed to be taking the fact that Christian was based in Seattle into account. Not that Ana wanted them to know that much about her relationship with Christian, but when she was constantly bugged about how she planned to keep her relationship with him after her exchange was over, she would be more than annoyed.

Christian had promised Ana that it wouldn't be a fling between them, and Ana believed it since she knew he wasn't based in New York, and they would be going back to Washington together. The only thing that was worrying her was the fact that he had to travel a lot and what if long-distance wouldn't work for them, and they break-up, because she wasn't sure if she could endure a split with him at this stage.

"Hey, so I'm this exchange student from the other side of the country." Ana started her speech after a short introduction done by the professor himself to give a brief overview of her topic. "And here's what I will be covering in my presentation."

She clicked the clicker and the slide changed. Her presentation went smoothly, at least there were no interruptions.

When she noticed that some of the students struggling to keep up with her, whether it was because what she was saying was boring or simply because it was too hard for them to understand, she decided to use her example.

Flipping through the slides, she went to the set that she prepared just in case. On the slide was a picture of the most recent magazine shoot of Christian. He was in his symbolic gray suit and a silver tie. His face shaved and his white shirt all buttoned up. Underneath the thin two pieces of clothing, his toned muscles were evident.

She smiled when the backdoor of the auditorium opened slowly, and just as she was about to start speaking to get the attention of the audience, trying to wake them up or help them understand her topic better, the man subjected on the screen stood near the entrance, staring at her.

"Now, who is this guy?" She said, pointing to the picture on screen. She was going to improvise through this example, because she wasn't expecting to use it when she prepared for the speech.

"Christian Grey." An answer came from somewhere faint. Some heads turned and caught sight of the man that was making his way down the stairs.

"Yes, let's welcome him on stage, shall we?" Ana then said, motioning Christian to join her on stage. He went willingly, although his head was going through every possible plan she could have.

Once he made his way to her, she walked up to him, resting her elbow on his shoulder and leaning against his side; she said to the mic. "So, who is Christian Grey?" She asked, some people were dumbfounded by her question, not knowing what kind of answer she was expecting.

She clicked the clicker and a list of words showed up on the screen, people started to choose from the list as answers were being shouted out.

"A businessman." Someone said.

"Self-made billionaire." Another shouted.

"Billionaire?" Ana choked out, failing to hold back her giggle. "Just because he has one tailored suit doesn't make him rich alright?" She said as a matter of factly, picking out parts of his jacket and nipping his tie up with two fingers. "Any other guesses?"

"Millionaire." One shouted.

"What makes you guys think he even has his own money?" Ana questioned amusingly, it was meant to be a joke.

"Go dig through my bank account and you'll be amazed, woman." Christian muttered under his breath, but parts of his voice had been transmitted through the mic in Ana's hand and the whole auditorium heard his comeback faintly.

"Any other guesses? Something more down to earth, perhaps?" Ana rolled her eyes, bringing her audiences' attention back to her.

Ana had to stifle a laugh when all of her answers on the list had been read out, yet that wasn't what she had in mind. Some really thought of the answers the she wanted real hard, thinking that she wanted something academic related, but that wasn't Ana's intention at all; the reason behind her question was purely for entertainment purposes.

"No." She said into the mic after shaking her head through all the given answers, even Christian gave her a questioning look. "He is," she said, clicking to the next slide, "my boyfriend." She winked at the crowd, just trying to lighten up the mood and get all of them to focus again.

"Aww…" "So sweet…" "Cute…"

The crowd erupted with noises and coos for a good whole minute before they calmed down so Ana could continue her speech.

"Okay, yes, to me, he's my boyfriend, but to the public, he is a businessman." She said getting back to the topic. "You can go back now." She shooed Christian away, but when he didn't move, she rolled her eyes and ignored him.

"I'm using him as an example." She then continued, completely disregarding Christian's raised eyebrow. "Say he wants to expand his company outside of the United States." She gave out the background information and then asked them for the possible solutions to the problem.

Christian stood there, impressed with the way she was able to explain a single concept in such a thorough detail and clearness. He knew about her topic and that was why he dropped out of school, but now he was doubting his ability to manage his investments and his company. He felt like his girlfriend was outwitting him and maybe, just maybe, he should ask Ana to help him with building the company.

…

Not only did Ana's presentation gained recognition from the teaching staff of the school, her social media had also been gaining a lot of attention lately. She had been tagged in multiple photos of her and Christian, there was even a new hashtag that had been conjured just for her and Christian's blossoming relationship. It wasn't helping that Instagram was the only social media she used.

Mia was a fan of all social media pages, and there were more than one press following her as she was able to share pictures of Christian's private life. There was nothing Christian could do to stop his sister from posting pictures on her social media account, but that didn't stop him from hating it.

Since Christian's rising fame in social media due to his success in investments and also due to his looks, she had to stop herself from posting photos that included her boyfriend.

"I don't even know half the people that are following me." Ana told Mia once when they were chilling in their room as they flipped through each other's Instagram account and commenting on every picture.

"Do you think I know? I've got press following me just because I have been posting photos of you and Christian." Mia complained, but that got Ana's attention.

"You've been posting pictures of us?" Ana squeaked, "that explains my ever growing follower numbers." She grumbled. "I should probably make it a private account." She said as she went to the settings to change it. "Why don't you change it, too." Ana asked.

"But I want followers." Mia whined, and that was the deal breaker for Ana's request. Mia wanted followers so she was willing to use her brother's pictures to get the followers. "Call me selfish or a spoiled bitch, but I'd have more followers by the end of today than you." Ana rolled her eyes at the naiveness of Mia Grey. For one, Anastasia couldn't care less about who followed her on Instagram, as long as her friends were following her then she wasn't going to bother about strangers.

"Whatever you want, Mia. Even your brother can't stop you." Ana sighed, rolling over and musing over the pictures on her phone of Christian. "But can you not post any picture of us during Christmas and New Year?" It was her only request and she was sure Christian would appreciate a few days of attention free holidays.

"But you're gonna post some."

"Yes, I will." Ana rolled her eyes, thinking that there would be less harm since her account was private.

"Then you've got a deal." Mia sat up straighter on her bed just in time to hear a knock on the door.

"Come in." Ana yelled. This was her response to whoever that knocked the door, as long as she was dressed and Mia was fully clothed, she couldn't give a shit about who entered.

"Ready?" The voice of a male made her jump out of her skin as she was used to Mia's girlfriends come storming into the room at night just to gossip and sometimes bug her about Christian.

"Shit, you're early." Ana muttered the last two words after a loud curse from her.

"Only for you, my lady." He grinned cheekily, walking toward her and closing the door behind him. Taking the phone from her hand and peeking at her still lit screen. "Someone's thinking of me." He wriggled his eyebrows at her as he flipped through her pictures of them.

"No, I was just thinking about which one to post, since I can get more followers." Ana deadpanned with an eye roll, mimicking Mia's tone. "That's your sister, by the way." She then said when Christian gave her a weird look.

"Mia." He sighed.

"I promised Ana that I won't be posting anything about you two during Christmas and New Year as long as she'll be posting." Mia squeaked under her brother's penetrating gaze.

"And you agreed to that?" Christian stared at his girlfriend in disbelief.

"I made my account private." Was all the excuse that Ana could come up with, she didn't really want to tell him about the real reason why in front of Mia.

"And what difference does that make?" He deadpanned.

"A lot?" Ana replied with a shrug.

…

"Ana, have you skied before?" Grace asked her as they set out from the house to the skiing place on foot.

Ana had been panicking about meeting Christian's family, in spite of all the reassurances from Mia and Christian, she was still wary of her actions and her behavior around the family members. As it turned out, just like what the two siblings had been reassuring her about, their family absolutely loved her. Christian even made a remark about how Ana was more of a daughter to them than he was their son.

"Um, I've snowboard, but not skied." She replied, still feeling awkward about making a conversation with someone. She didn't know why she was so nervous, she wasn't uncomfortable, and she didn't even remember being this nervous when she was giving her presentation to half of the business students in her grade that day.

"Snowboard?" Elliot's ear perked up.

Ana nodded uncertainly, not understanding where the sudden enthusiasm came from.

"Finally!" He raised his arms to the sky, as if embracing the god that answered his prayers. "No one, absolutely no one in our family snowboards, they are way too fucking boring." He explained his enthusiasm.

Ana giggled when Grace chastised his language usage.

"Snowboarding is too dangerous." Christian came into defense. It was apparent to Ana already that the debate was usually between the two brothers, and of course the women in the family would crave for something less challenging, and skiing for them would do. She felt out of place all of a sudden, because the ladies in the family were all ladylike, but she was one who craved for the adrenaline rush from time to time. She remembered the first time she went skiing, their coach strongly suggested her to ski, but she just wouldn't have it, she demanded to snowboard, claiming it was more fun than having to hold two sticks in her hand.

"We should rent snowboards this year." Elliot fist pumped the air, completely disregarding his brother's comment.

"Sure, since I only know how to snowboard." Ana smiled, glad to have found someone who liked the same sports that she did.

"Are you going to snowboard this year, brother?" Elliot finally acknowledged his brother by giving him a teasing smile. "Even your girl is braver than you." He taunted.

"I think I'll stay and help mom and Mia, or save Dad's ass." Christian stared at Ana with a mixed expression but settled with that in the end.

"Pussy." Ana giggled when she heard Elliot muttering it under his breath, and seeing Christian's scowl once he heard it.

"Fuck off, Lelliott." Was all Christian retorted before they found themselves before the front gate.

As planned, Elliot led Ana away from Christian to the snowboarding section, much to Christian's dismay, but seeing as he didn't want to do anything other than skiing, he had decided to trust his brother to take care of his girl. He was sure that Elliot was impressed by Ana already, and he was sure that his brother wouldn't be the last male to be impressed by his girlfriend. He was so proud of her, and even prouder at himself for not giving up on her and finally winning her back.

"How long is this trail?" Ana asked once they hopped off the stable car. Eliot had chosen the shortest trail just to let her get used to the board once again, because she told him that it had been a while since she last snowboarded.

"Pretty short." He said, lifting up his arm and pointing downhill. "See that shiny thing? That's where Christian and everyone else is." Ana winced when the light reflected right into her eyes, that was when she realized that she hadn't put on her goggles.

"Ready?" She asked after fiddling with her outfit and her equipment, she stepped into her board, locked her feet in and turned her body to check on him.

"Yup." He replied, giving her a thumbs up and a toothy grin. She returned the thumbs up and moved to the slop.

"Jesus girl." Elliot muttered to himself the second Ana took off. He was using up all his energy and concentration to focus on what he was doing in hand just to keep up with Ana. He didn't expect her to just shoot off without any acceleration, and when she picked up speed, he felt like he was going to lose her, but thank god the trail was short, he was able to arrive just a few seconds after her.

"Fuck, you're quick." He walked up to her, seeing her brushing off the snow that was on her mask. She laughed.

"Find a longer trail and you'll lose me within the first few seconds." She challenged.

"You're on." Elliot's smile widened. Whenever he came here with his family, he had to find someone on the spot to snowboard with him, and when he couldn't, he was always bored and was forced to go skiing with the family.

"Where are we going?" She asked when she saw him walking toward the camp site where their stuff was stationed.

"Christian can join the competition as well as Mia. Grace and Carrick can just be the judge." Elliot explained.

"But I'm sure your parents will want to ski themselves." Ana wasn't sure how Christian would take the idea of the speed she was going down hill in.

"One round won't hurt them." Elliot waved away the worry.

Ana couldn't deny the excitement that she was feeling, she was actually looking forward to the competition, wanting to see how everyone skied, so she didn't argue further.

Once Elliot brought up the idea, Grace and Carrick were all about it. Mia was reluctant to join but accepted the invitation in the end. Christian just looked skeptical between Ana and his brother, wondering what they were up to, but he had decided not to question it.

"We're heading to the longest trail." Elliot announced.

"Oh no." The panic in Mia's voice wasn't undetected, and Ana suddenly felt guilty for bringing up the challenge and urging her to join.

"You don't have to really race with us, you know?" Ana tried to sooth her.

"She needs to know that the world is competitive." Elliot patted his sister in the back in a brotherly manner and gave her an encouraging grin as they reached the line to the cable car.

"But safety comes first." Ana argued, hoping that Mia wasn't going to get hurt on her way down.

"She's capable of skiing and she's not bad at it, right Mia?" Elliot wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulling her close to boost her confidence. Mia nodded quietly.

"She's right though, safety is the priority." Christian said. "Maybe we should just ski down in our own pace." He suggested calling off the race, but that was the whole point of Elliot and Ana's race.

"Please don't, we will be extra careful." Ana pouted in his face, clasping her hand in front of her and looking up at him with the cute puppy dog eye. Christian took a deep breath and look away. "I'll be watching out for Mia."

"And you'll get hurt yourself."

"But…"

"I'll be watching Mia, you and Elliot can have fun." He said.

"The whole point of coming down to you guys is to ask you two to join, and now that you are chickening out, what's the fun?" Ana whined, she really didn't know why they couldn't just get out of their comfort zone for once. Now that Mia's worried and got her brother worked up, and if Christian had decided against it, there would be no point in the race. "Just this once, I promise Christian." Ana said confidently and determined. "You two will just have to participate just this once and Elliot and I will steer clear of you two." She put up one finger in his face to emphasize her point.

"Looks like someone's taming the beast." Elliot chimed in with a chirpier Mia by his side. "I'll take the ride with Mia to make sure that she's feeling confident." He informed as he helped Mia onto the car and hopped on himself, winked at Ana and turned away.

It wasn't like he had given a lot of time for Ana to think about whether she was going to take the cable car up with Christian or not.

…

Ana had had her fun with Christian's family over the Christmas break, she had her New Year kiss from her boyfriend and now she had found a guy who would play tennis with her.

"Christian, do you know a guy who goes by the name Cal?" Ana asked one day after she got back from a beach for her Spring Break. Her boyfriend was taking every chance he got to spoil her and this time, taking a vacation to the beach with her best friend was nothing more perfect than she could imagine.

 _"Baby, I'm taking you away for a while." Christian told her as they arrived the airport just like what he had told her to do. All she knew about her break was that he had something planned for her and they were going to spend the break together, the only detail of the plan that she knew of was that they were going to take a plane._

 _"Where are we going?" It wasn't the first time that she had asked him this question, and it wouldn't be the last until she got an answer from him._

 _"You'll see." He said, walking up to the counter and checking their bags in. After getting their boarding pass printed, he handed it to her. She snatched it from him, thrilled to find out where they were heading, she guessed it would be somewhere near the water since she was told to pack a swimsuit._

 _"Ahh!" She shrieked, her eyes glowing with happiness when she looked up at him, lunging herself at him catching him off guard in the middle of the airport. She wrapped her legs around his waist, cradled his head and planted a loud, firm kiss on his lips. "Oh my god. Are you serious? Are you fucking serious?"_

 _He nodded, feeling his cheek splitting by the grin that was growing bigger by the minute. All he could do was kiss her and shake his head to answer her questions._

 _"We're going to Barbados in first class?" She squealed excitedly._

 _"That's not even the best part." He replied into her mouth._

 _"What? What can possibly top this?" She was aware that her legs were still wrapped tightly around his waist, but she had no intention of letting go so soon, she had to make sure that she wasn't dreaming._

 _"You'll find out later."_

 _…_

 _Surely when she arrived their beach cabin to see Kate, Ethan, Mia and Elliot standing there, she was exited all over again; but she almost fainted when Christian told her that he had rented the cabin that she was currently standing in and admiring for the whole week just for the two of them._

 _"Oh my god." Ana cried. "I can't tell you how much I love you right now."_

 _"So you only love me now?" Christian joked, but only in an attempt to hide his astonished tone in hearing the word that he thought he would never be able to hear or say to another woman that was not his family._

 _"No, I've always loved you, but I'm falling more in love with you this moment."_

 _"You have no idea just how much more I'm falling for you every day." He shook his head in satiated happiness. "I love you, too, Anastasia. From the minute I left in that convertible that summer almost two years ago."_

 _"This must've cost a fortune." She was concerned of the cost when all he wanted her to do was to enjoy herself and her time with her friends and himself._

 _"I'd like you to believe the audience when they said that I'm a billionaire." He rested his head her shoulder, pressing himself closer to her back and inhaling her scent._

 _"But you aren't." She argued confused._

 _"Not yet." He muttered against his skin. "I've been saving up for this trip ages ago, and I've been gaining not losing, so don't worry about it, baby." He said soothingly, calming her down. "Enjoy the yourself and enjoy the break."_

 _"I'm so spoiled." She wanted to sound like she was complaining, but there was no way she could put that voice on when she was loving everything._

 _"Then I'll take it as I've done a good job." Remarked Christian happily._

 _"You've always been perfect." She pointed out._

 _"Trust me, you'll only be more spoiled once I'm rich." He promised._

 _"But you shouldn't be spending on me when you're still working extremely hard for your future." She said, thinking back to all the gifts and the trips that he had showered her with, she hadn't been giving him back a single piece of item. All she remembered doing was staying in his apartment every chance she got and going over her business plans, making changes to it and taking of his work load._

 _"No,_ we _are building Grey Enterprise Holdings, baby. What you've done to the me and to the company is more than what words and tangible items can even cover." He took her cheek in his hand, looking down in her eyes deeply. Conveying his most ardent love toward her. "Besides," he paused, suddenly aware of the feelings that he had revealed to her, and realizing just how much she was reciprocating those feelings. "_ You _are my future."_

 _"For all we know, I'm just a college student, there is no way that I'm making any effort to the universe that you're creating, Christian." Ana was confused._

 _"But I trust you with the company and with everything I now own." He explained. "You will be in my will."_

 _"You have a will?" Ana didn't know how to react to that piece of information, he was still a twenty-one year old, and his company is building, he was nowhere near that important in the society._

 _"I will have it once I am successful enough for the world to recognize me."_

 _…_

 _"Damn, you're killing me here, Ana." Christian groaned when Ana took off her tank top, revealing her sports bra that was in sea-green with a shiny silver logo in the middle. She was wearing a pair of beach shorts and like Kate, she didn't wear her sandals out because they were going to play beach volley._

 _"Come join us then, Grey." Ana yelled, ducking under the water to avoid the menacing splashing coming from Kate. They dived into the water simultaneously and once the resurfaced again, Ana and Kate started to splash water toward each other, and Ana seemed to be winning but Elliot soon came to her rescue and Ana was now wiggling away under the water to get away from the two._

 _She wasn't able to get far enough before she felt a pair of arms tugging at her legs. Bursting through the surface while kicking the intruder, she found herself in the arms of her boyfriend._

 _"Hi." He breathed down her neck, trailing his tongue down the crook of her neck and to her shoulder licking away the salty water._

 _"Hey." She breathed, suppressing a moan, not wanting to give him the satisfaction that he was looking for._

 _Having enough of his teasing, she spun around and crashed her lips to his to stop his skillful tongue from further provoking her sensitive skin. Realizing that it was not any better, in fact that only made her more aroused. She sighed and moaned out his name, giving into him._

 _"What do you want, Ana?" He whispered seductively in her ear as he felt her melting under his touch, he loved it when he could affect her like that, it was the same affect that she had on him, but she just wasn't totally aware._

 _Before Ana could get her mushy mind sorted and demand him to fuck her, they were interrupted by a huge splash generated by Elliot, Kate, Mia and Ethan, breaking their moment. Groaning in frustration when she saw Christian's smirk, she started to make her way toward her friends._

 _"Come on, Steele, time to show off." Kate called, heading to the shore to pick up the volleyball that she brought from home._

 _"Six people?" Ana asked incredulously, to her, it was too many because she was a skilled beach volleyball player._

 _"Three on three, Ana, one more won't hurt." Kate rolled her eyes, she knew what was going through Ana's head, but she was more about having fun than winning when it comes to playing with family, and Ana sometimes just couldn't put past the thought of not being competitive at anything._

 _"Fine, girls versus boys. Done!" Ana announced arrogantly, giving the three boys a challenging look._

 _"Bring it on, Annie." Ethan taunted, Ana gave him the finger for calling her the nickname that he refused to change._

 _Christian was trying hard to focus on the ball and the game and not on how the muscles on Ana flexed whenever she moved. Her abdominals would show a faint line of a four packs when she flexed them as she jumped up to block or to attack. Her vest line would deepen when she shuffles on her feet, or when she served. The way she jumped up and the way her deltoid muscle would bulk up perfectly when her arms were raised up to set a ball; and when she pushed the ball, there would be a delicate line that shaped out her biceps and triceps. He was mesmerized by her sculpted back muscles when she turned back to help Mia with a ball. Christian just couldn't not stop staring, her upper body was the epitome of a model, and the smooth curves on her calf muscles and quadriceps were just adding to the beauty that was oozing out of her. He felt like her sun-kissed skin was glowing under the sun._

 _"You are so perfect." He muttered to her before he fell into sleep_

"Christian." She called, waving a hand in front of him to bring him back from the trance.

"Hmm, baby?"

"I asked you a question."

"Yes, I do know the guy." He replied smoothly, as if that gap between the question and the answer never existed. She stared at him expectantly, so he elaborated for her. "He was my roommate. Remember the guy that was very excited to see you after that.." He then went into story telling mode just to help her recall the night.

"Oh." She finally said after a long speech from him, describing the night from multiple angle and perspectives.

"Yeah, 'oh'." He rolled his eyes at her lack of reaction. "So, what about him?"

"He wants to play tennis with me, but I don't know if he's good because his pay wasn't something that I'd normally consider." She explained, fishing out her phone to show him the email that she had gotten from the man.

"It's totally up to you, plus, he's harmless, trust me." Christian chuckled. "If you don't have time, then don't bother him, but if you do, then taking the money is better than not having any."

"Right," she nodded, going over her schedule in her mind. She had only a couple months left in Harvard and she realized that she had just started to feel the fun of exchanging and it was going to end.

…

"Your ride home is here." Ethan said, glancing at the door briefly after bumping the ball back to Ana.

"Jesus, focus, Kavanagh." The ball hit Ethan's unprepared arm with a loud thud, making him yelp. Ana stood there glaring at him. "You wanted me to help you improve, so take up the fucking chance and stop glancing at everywhere when you get a chance."

"Sorry." Ethan apologized guiltily, silently rubbing the arm that the ball had previously made contact with. When Ana wanted to really spike, her attacks could be lethal to the other team. Her serve would be even worse if the ball was spinning, but her serve in general was enough to kill a team if they weren't prepared.

"Now, stand up, and you'll be getting back to your girl after I'm satisfied with your performance." Ana commanded. Christian looked at his girlfriend amused, but she hadn't looked his side since his entrance, though he knew she could feel him. He wolf-whistled when he heard the authority and the power she held in her voice, Ana's head snapped toward him, a dangerous glare in her eyes. He coward a little, but that didn't stop her from attacking, throwing up the ball, she punched it with her fist, aiming at Christian and got him on his back. It would end up on his stomach if he didn't turn quickly.

"Shut up and stop distracting him." She hissed, perhaps she was really unhappy about Ethan tonight.

Making his way toward his sister who was sitting on the bleachers looking at Ethan intently, he raised an amusing eyebrow at Mia's expression.

"When did you two happen?" He nudged Mia gently, getting her attention and then pointed a finger at Ethan who was now been beaten to the floor by Ana's ball.

"Months ago." She shrugged but replied softly as if she was unsure of what she should tell her brother.

"Months ago?" He almost jumped up in his seat, but didn't want to get hit by his girlfriend again, so decided to pretend to remain calm. "Why do I have to hear it from my girl?"

"Ethan told her first." Mia shrugged nonchalantly.

"As a matter of fact, Mia. I'm your brother. Ethan and Ana are just friends. Why does she get to know it first and I can't even hear it from you?" Christian was just teasing, he wasn't exactly that upset about Mia and Ethan's relationship, because from what Ana had told him about Ethan, he had decided to put him under his good people list. "Does Elliot know?" He then asked, liking the sight of Mia squirming under his questioning.

"No, but he speculated it in Barbados." She blushed.

"How does Ethan feel about Kate and Elliot though?" He blurted out, not knowing where his thinking actually went.

"Kate was uncertain of entering a relationship with Elliot at first, not because she had recently broken up with her long term boyfriend, but because Ethan and I are together, she just doesn't want anything to be weird."

"But did he tell her that we are all adopted?" Christian didn't know why he was interested in other people's business all of a sudden, he could only assume that it was Ana rubbing off on him. She and Kate would always gossip about their friends' relationship as if they are their businesses.

"Yeah." Mia nodded. "Since when are you so interested in relationships?" _Crap, she noticed_.

Christian said nothing but just shrugged as he couldn't even come up with a convincing excuse, all the ones that he could think of were lame as fuck and he wasn't about to use them. It would only make him more pathetic.

…

Today was June 18th, it was Christian's birthday and Ana's supposed last day of school.

"We're flying back to Seattle this afternoon." Christian called Ana this morning to inform her of the plan. He was going to come down here just to pick up his sister and his girlfriend, they were going to his parents' house for the celebration as usual.

Ana had nothing to give to him, and she had been panicking ever since she became aware of his upcoming birthday three, four months ago. He had told her more times than he could remember that he didn't want anything apart from her, but she insisted on gifting him something.

"I hope you're going to like it, Christian." She said in a small voice, chewing her fingers as she saw him pick up the gift from the now empty pile.

When the time for present unwrapping had came, all guests were gone and only family stayed behind to share the moment with him. They were all sitting on the couch around the pile of gifts that were on the floor. Ana's was the last one to be picked up, she wondered if it was because that one looked the most, plain and the least attractive.

Christian looked up at her and gave her a warm smile, she hoped that he didn't hear the insecurity in her voice. The gift was a roll in a cylinder container, it looked like a piece of artwork from the wrapping, but once he opened the lid, pulled out the paper and unrolled the sheet.

He gasped.

"I'm sorry if this is all I can offer, I hope it's not too insignificant." She quickly apologized, sinking down further into her seat when there was no response from him as he was still staring at the paper in front of him.

"No, don't you dare apologize for your gift." He quickly reassured her.

"It's not pricey like the other gifts and it's not delicate. I just couldn't think of a single gift that you could possibly like–"

She was instantly silenced by his lips. The paper rolled up neatly on the table, making sure no one could see the content.

"Shh…" He silenced her. "You're rambling, again." He chuckled, reminded of the first time they met and the multiple occasions where she ranted his ears out, but he listened to every one of it and was grateful that she would confide in him.

"It's just a piece of paper, though."

"Yes, but what it contains is priceless." He answered, giving her a soft kiss just to make his point. "Your gift is by far the best I've ever received, and that's not only because I love what you've done for me, but more so, because _I love you_."


	6. Six: Returning the Favor

**Please excuse all mistakes, this is a work of pure fiction.**

* * *

Returning the Favor

The last year of university should be relaxing in the beginning and stressful toward the end so that you could get your dream job and relax more once you were settled. Then again, it was what Anastasia had originally planned in her book, but it had all changed since that fateful summer when she was just a freshman. Now that she was senior, the only difference to her was that she had a boyfriend whom she loved more than life itself.

Just a few hours drive away from Pullman in Seattle, a skyscraper was erecting from the newly purchased ground. It was almost done, but the interior was still under construction. A new company was setting its foot inside the building and even though it was still developing, people could already sense the power oozing out from the founders.

Meanwhile, in the apartment of Anastasia and Kate, a party was going on, and not only the usual group attended, the businessman also showed up. Ana was already tipsy, and it was only the start of her party.

"It's starting to become a tradition that you throw me a party for my birthday, Kate." Ana shouted to her over the loud music.

"It's not even a surprise anymore, isn't it?" Kate replied giggly, she wasn't in any better state, with her bae next to her whispering dirty talks into her ears.

"But I didn't fund it this time." Kate giggled, looking up at the person standing behind Ana, their hands on her hip steadying her. She gasped at the contact, the gestures were all too familiar. "Your boyfriend had already taken up all your expenses."

"He's not at all rich." Ana whined, hating the idea of Christian spending a fortune on her. She knew her mind wasn't in the right place to say this especially when the subject was right behind her.

"But he knows investment and he knows that investing in you never fails him." Christian said in her ear, pulling her closer to him by wrapping an arm around her waist and his other one went to the shot glass in her hand. Gripping on to the shot glass, he pulled it out of her grasp and placed it back to the line of shots, then taking the water that he filled from his side. "Drink this." He ordered gently.

"Bossy." She rolled her eyes and taking a sip of the plain water that had the most boring taste.

"I don't think I'd be the bossy one tonight once the party's over." He smirked, his hand that was flat on her stomach started to rub circles around her navel. The sensation from the contact made her shiver, along with the alcohol that she had consumed which was starting to take effect, she was wet before she even realized it. "Someone's horny tonight." He remarked, nipping her earlobe from the back, teasing her. She groaned. "I like it when my girl's drunk."

"Because she gets needy and horny." Ana still managed to roll her eyes without making the room spin, somehow.

"Just how I like her to be." Christian continued to tease her under public eyes, but she was starting to let the 'fuck it all' thought creep through and take over her rational part. "Though I prefer not to use alcohol as the catalyst."

"Maybe I'm not as horny as you right now." She turned herself around to face him, still in his arms, as she push herself closer to him and feeling the erection that was poking through his pants and into her stomach.

Just a little bit of moving and some grinding would work him up, and that was exactly what she was doing. The movement of her waist didn't go unnoticed by him as his hands were still linked behind her lower back, it did very little to ease his ache, but he wasn't going to cave in so soon. When she didn't see the pain on his face from the torture that she was putting both of them in, she said, "fuck it."

Stepping out of his hold, she made her way to the open window, trying to get some air into the house and also into her lungs.

"Happy birthday, Ana." A voice behind her broke the silence surrounding her. She slowly turned around, her back leaned against the window, letting the cool breeze brush the back of her neck, completely ignoring the strands of hair that were been blown to the front of her face.

"Thank you, José." She replied out of courtesy, there was a sudden awkward tension in the air, and she wondered if it was just because of her current state. "What did you get me this year?" She asked the question that she asked since her freshman surprise party, in a vain attempt to ease the awkwardness between them.

"Ah, that's why I'm here, I was hoping to give them to you in person." He said, sounded rather fidgety and nervous, and she would like to explain as her imagination in her drunken state; however, she was quickly proven that it wasn't her.

"Alright." She didn't question him further, because Christian had already given two gifts in the morning and on their way back, even though he had placed another gift on the pile like all other guests, but he said there was one more that he would be giving to her in person at night.

"I- I love you, Ana." He blurted out. "I mean, I'm in love with you. Ever since the first time we met again when I hit puberty, I realized what I've always felt for you is more than friendship." This wasn't the first time that he had confessed his feelings to her, but she had already gotten used to it by now, she just wanted him to understand that they would never work out.

"We've been through this, José." Ana murmured, unsure of what she should say to him as this was the first time he actually said he loved her. "I thought you know better than to repeat your actions." She bit back the work 'mistake' as she didn't want him to misunderstand, she only meant it as they wouldn't work out. "I don't want to ruin what we have, José, our friendship is valuable to me, but I can't be more than friends with you."

"What does he have that I don't?" He asked darkly.

Ana didn't reply, not because this would hurt him or trigger him to do something that both of them would regret, but simply because she didn't have an answer for him. She didn't know why, out of all people, she would fall in love with Christian. Over the course of her teenage life, she had her fair share of men and crushes, but none of them stood out like Christian did.

"I love you, Anastasia Steele. Always have and always will." José declared, which made it even more unbearable for Ana. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze and suddenly an idea popped into her head.

Excusing herself out of the room and mingling through the crowd as she got to the center, she got the mic from the DJ and got everyone's attention. If she was going to pull that spontaneous plan off, she was going to need to do it fast, ad do it now.

"This song is dedicated to a person that is special to me, and holds a special position in my heart." She said, some thought it was to her boyfriend who was standing next to his brother with a bottle of beer in his hand, but her eyes had never left the door that she just came out from. The silhouette standing at that door frame was the person that she was singing to. Her eyes never met Christian's, it didn't even scan the room to try to find him. This made him feel uneasy, but the determined look on her face with a tint of sadness in her voice made him slightly worried about what would be coming next.

The voice of Anne-Marie blared through the stereo around the room the minute her voice faded, the crowd cheered, still thinking it was something romantic.

But what came out next really stung.

 _You say you love me, I say you crazy_

 _We're nothing more than friends_

 _You're not my lover, more like a brother_

 _I known you since we were like ten, yeah_

She started to make her way out of the circle that was surrounding her, and she was heading toward the doorway where José was standing, his arms crossed in front of him. He recognized the song immediately and a frown creased his eyebrow.

 _Don't mess it up, talking that shit_

 _Only gonna push me away, that's it!_

 _When you say you love me, that make me crazy_

 _Here we go again_

On her way to the door, she went passed Christian who was giving her an odd look, but she blew him a kiss as a reassurance of their relationship status.

 _Don't go look at me with that look in your eye_

 _You really ain't going without a fight_

 _You can't be reasoned with, I'm done being polite_

 _I've told you one, two, three, four five, six thousand times_

"Damn, sweet Jesus, who pissed in her cereal today?" Elliot muttered under his breath as Ana swayed her hips toward her final destination along with the lyrics building up to the chorus.

Kate only had to mutter the name, 'José' and it was enough for Christian to understand her behavior, but Elliot was still a tad bit confused though he somewhat guessed.

 _Haven't I made it obvious?_

 _Haven't I made it clear?_

 _Want me to spell it out for you?_

 _F-R-I-E-N-D-S_

 _Haven't I made it obvious?_

 _Haven't I made it clear?_

 _Want me to spell it out for you?_

 _F-R-I-E-N-D-S_

 _F-R-I-E-N-D-S_

With one final glare, she turned away from José, and started to make her way back to the centre of the stage. It was now obvious that the song was supposed to be the answer to José's question earlier.

"I'm sorry if I ruined your birthday." José muttered under his breath, but the music was too loud for Ana to hear him. She continued to finish the song for him.

 _Have you got no shame? You looking insane_

 _Turning up at my door_

 _It's two in the morning, the rain is pouring_

 _Haven't we been here before?_

And that was just how she was feeling about him right now, she couldn't really give two fucks about what he was feeling, because to be perfectly honest with herself, he did somewhat killed her mood by throwing the shit at her.

 _Don't mess it up, talk that shit_

 _Only gonna push me away, that's it!_

 _Have you got no shame? You looking insane_

 _Here we go again_

Her eyes were still fixed on him, and she was just a few steps away from him, thinking better than just to stand in the center without being close enough to spit on him. She really didn't hate him at that moment, but he did loathe what he did at that minute.

 _So don't go look at me with that look in your eye_

 _You really ain't going away without a fight_

 _You can't be reasoned with, I'm done being polite_

 _I've told you one, two, three, four, five, six thousand times_

He was still standing there looking ashamed, since now that everyone knew about his feelings to her and about her rejection. Despite the stinging feeling that he had always felt when she let him down the easy way, but he didn't take the hint, he was just determined and stubborn to believe that she actually felt the same.

 _Haven't I made it obvious?_

 _Haven't I made it clear?_

 _Want me to spell it out for you?_

 _F-R-I-E-N-D-S_

 _Haven't I made it obvious?_

 _Haven't I made it clear?_

 _Want me to spell it out for you?_

 _F-R-I-E-N-D-S_

 _F-R-I-E-N-D-S_

She repeated the chorus, shaking her head in front of him, a despised look on her face. Ana herself couldn't exactly be held fully responsible for her actions tonight, but she did have an idea of what she was currently doing.

 _F-R-I-E-N-D-S_

 _That's how you fucking spell 'friends'_

 _F-R-I-E-N-D-S_

 _Get that shit inside your head_

 _No, no, yeah, uh, ahh_

 _F-R-I-E-N-D-S_

 _We're just friends_

This was the part where she wanted to emphasize with him, so standing in his face again, pointing right at him and poking his chest to shove him back with each word, he finally relented, bowing his head and retreated into the room by himself.

She proceeded to finish the song, and she knew he could still hear her, so once the cheers quietened, she spoke into the microphone once again.

"The love you feel for me may be different from the feeling you have for Kate, but it is not the same as the love that Christian has for me. I love you as a friend, José, nothing more and nothing less. Perhaps I feel different about you and Kate, but I love you both. However, what I feel for Christian is completely different than what I feel for you, they are both love. I just want you to understand that loving someone is different than being in love with someone."

…

Ana remembered vaguely rejecting José and feeling strongly negative about him bring their friendship to the next level, but she couldn't exactly remember what she did to tell him off, though he was now distancing himself from her and she didn't know if she wanted that or not. To her, their friendship was still something that she would hold on to if that was what he was willing to continue with her.

She groaned when she tossed to her side and felt her brain throbbing in pain, squeezing her eyes shut as if it could squeeze out the dizziness, but it wasn't working. Then when she finally settled into a comfortable position, she felt something fanning down her face, peaking her eyes open, she saw a nose and a pair of lips in front of her, real close up and real big.

"Ah!" She yelped loudly, scooting away, ignoring the intensifying pain resulted from her movement. Then the person opened his eyes and stared at her in what seemed like a mix of concern and amusement. "Fuck you." She muttered when she realized who she freaked out on.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing." She murmured, hoping that he didn't know to save her from the embarrassment. The look on his face told her that he wasn't going to take that as an answer, so she groaned and started to talk, but not before hiding her face in his bare chest. "I freaked out when I opened my eyes to find us almost kissing in our sleep." She explained in a small voice. "I wasn't used to sleeping next to other people." She whined in protest when she heard his chuckle.

"Well I don't like to sleep next to other people, but did you see me freaking out?" He retorted in amusement.

"It's not like I forced you to sleep with me." She grumbled, but half suspecting that it was what really happened last night. "Did I really say that?" She stared at him through her lashes bashfully when he didn't make a comment.

"Say what?" If it wasn't a morning after a party and if she wasn't hangover, the scene was almost comical, and with that series of conversation, the situation couldn't be more hilarious.

"Ask you to sleep with me." Ana swallowed as if the embarrassment that she was feeling could just go to the pit of her stomach along with her saliva.

"Don't you always do that?" Christian laughed. "Is there one night that you didn't beg me to stay over?"

"Yes," Ana said after thinking about the question for a while, she didn't even know why she was thinking about the stupid questions that he was asking which were meant to be rhetorical. Christian raised eye brow at her curiously. "When you are begging me to stay with you in New York." She smirked, remembering the time when he was chasing after her, trying to get her to stay in his apartment.

"And I wonder how did that role reverse?" He mused out loud, but the smile never faded from his face.

"Whatever." She sighed in defeat, still tired from yesterday. "What time is it?" She asked, but looked at the clock herself. "It's almost noon?" Her eyes suddenly widened, but was soon closed because of her pounding head.

"Yes, baby. It's almost noon, but it's a Sunday."

"Yeah, and apparently I have to go to school tomorrow, and I'm supposed to be touring some stupid asshole around the school since I'm the ambassador." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Might I ask who is that 'stupid asshole'?" He made an air quote, using her words.

"Oh, just some wannabe billionaire businessman who thinks he's got too much cash in his hand so he's going to be throwing it at a university's agricultural department." Ana said nonchalantly, her eyes closed and her head ducked beneath the blanket, still trying to go back to sleep to sleep off the hangover.

"He's got quite a title." Christian could only get out that much before bursting out laughing at the description of himself coming from his girlfriend. "Pray, how do you know about his wealth?"

"I've done my research."

"Sounds like you know him well then."

"Yes, quite intimately, unfortunately."

…

"José, please pick up. Whatever it is that I've said yesterday, I'm sorry." Ana said into the phone dejectedly, it was the umpteenth time that she had tried to reach him, but according to Kate, he was very upset by what Ana had done.

"Ana, he'll come around." Kate told her when she saw the distracted look on her face. "I can't say I pity him because I'd do exactly what you did when you're been pushed too far."

"Why can't he just take no for an answer for once." Ana groaned out in frustration. "It's not the first time that I've turned him down, and it's not because of Christian that I rejected him. Why can't he get that in to his thick skull?"

"I know, Ana. That guy's just too dense for his own good. Well, I hope he's getting laid because he's not picking up my calls either." Kate winked at Ana while the latter pretend to barf at the thought of José fucking some girl.

"I'm sorry, but that's just something I don't ever want to picture." Ana feigned a glare at Kate. "Shit, I've gotta go meat the Dean now." Ana said, shooting up from her seat. "I need to give my boyfriend a tour." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, don't make a scene." Kate called behind her and Ana turned just in time to flip her the bird before turning the corner to the Dean's office.

"Miss Steele, good to see you've made it." The Dean greeted her with a warm smile. Christian was already seated in the room, and his eyes lit up when Ana walked in. "This is Mr Grey, he's a big supporter of our agricultural department." The Dean pointed to her boyfriend, who gave her a subtle wink that made her roll her eyes. "Mr Grey, Miss Steele is our model student who went to Harvard for exchange and did an excellent job through her studies. She's been our model student for the past three years, and I'm sure she's going to be the perfect candidate for the valedictorian position this fall."

Christian smiled proudly at Ana and nodded at the Dean, then stood up from his seat, his hand itching to touch her but refrained himself. He would publicize their relationship in a heartbeat if Ana allowed it, but she had given him strict orders to not put on a show on school grounds.

"Shall we, Mr Grey?" Ana said politely, but not leaving out the trace of tease in her voice.

"We shall, Miss Steele." He said following her out the door, starting their tour. Though when they were sure that no one was listening, they were talking about stuff that were not at all related to the school, but rather than chatting like old friends.

…

José warmed up to her again, and true to Kate's speculation, José was with a girl the night of her birthday party. She was a student from the agricultural department, ironically, who had a mild crush on Christian when she spot him touring around their building. Her small destain toward Ana wasn't undetected, but Ana thought she owed José that much, so she didn't budge on it. As long as José was happy and was still her friend, it was all Ana could ask for, she couldn't care less if José's girlfriend had decided to crush on her boyfriend or if they disliked her, she only cared about José and his happiness.

Another year passed. While Ana was studying hard to ace her finals, Christian was buried deep in his work. He was planning on finishing the building and take Ana with him to look at it after it was built. He didn't want to go see the place if Ana wasn't there, he wanted to share the first with her.

Christian didn't have much in his hand, but he had been planning and keeping his money organized. He was heavily invested in products with the cash in his hand, but there was a small portion that he left out for his future with Ana.

Ana was graduating soon, and he was invited to speak on their ceremony and hand out diplomas. As their biggest supporter, he was also asked to do an interview. Luckily it was Ana who was assigned to do the interview, or else he wasn't sure if he was able to maintain his temper throughout the boring long questions.

That morning, Ana walked to his temporary office with a folder in her hand. Placing it on the table, she said, "answer these questions and email it to Kate."

Then she took a seat opposite of him, looking at him while watching him going over the list of questions, musing for answers, pursing his lips from time to time at the questions that were all too typical for a successful man like him.

"Why Kate?" Christian asked, putting down the list.

"Because she's writing your interview." Ana shrugged as if that was obvious.

"You know you can just answer all of them for me, you know what I would say." He inquired.

"Yeah, but the whole point of an interview is to talk and ask questions right?"

"Then why did you just toss me this list?"

"Because I've got another list for you, and this is for you to answer verbally."

"If she's writing my interview," Christian's still avoiding to actually get down to the process as he hated interviews, he just didn't know what Ana had prepared for him, "then, why are you here?"

"To interview you."

"Stop going in circles with me, Ana." In spite of his annoyed tone, a smile still appeared on his lips. "Why are you interviewing me?"

"I want to ditch school."

"And see me."

"No." She pursed her lips to ponder. "Well, yes, but ditching school comes first. I'm taking this chance to ditch school, seeing you is just a byproduct."

"You mean a bonus."

"If you want to put it that way, sure." She shrugged, unable to fend off the giggle that was slowly rising up her throat, her poker face façade was going to be broken any second, she just needed one more push.

"Then I'll put it that way." He smirked. "I haven't had the time to congratulate you on your win though, baby." He then said, suddenly remembering witnessing her killer moves on the volleyball court during his visiting week. She insisted that he watch.

"Thank you, I'm MVP." She said proudly.

"The trophy is still in your apartment." He nodded in agreement, equally proud of her. He saw the trophy on the shelf this morning when he went out for an early meeting, and he knew he had to celebrate it with her some time after she graduated. Perhaps, that could be done along with her graduation celebration.

"That's not the first though, did you see my high school one?" She asked, getting excited, she had always liked to show-off her volleyball trophies, and especially liked to brag about the only tennis cup that she had from that only game she had attended for amateurs.

"Of course." He smiled adoringly. "I'll just keep it in mind that you like to show off in front of me." He said, referring to another time when he was touring around the other sections of the campus with the Dean and the head of the agriculture department, they purposefully walked into the business classroom on his request, just to catch Ana making another presentation to the class.

"That's just a coincidence." She whined, in her defense, the not-so-subtle wink that she had sent him during her speech when she spot him at the back of the room was just a slip. But in her heart, she knew she liked to show off in front of him, but only to him.

"Coincidence my ass." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Sure, whatever you say, baby." He laughed when he got a disapproving look from her. "Now, your questions." He reminded.

"Okay, first question." She cleared her throat and composed herself, shifting in her chair making unnecessary movements.

"Are you gay, Mr Grey?"

"This is some interview coming from my girlfriend."

"What's your guilty pleasure?"

"You, Miss Steele."

"Do you believe in love?"

"Not until you, Anastasia."

"Do you believe in love at first sight?"

"The moment you walked into my vision."

"Then do you believe in fate?"

"When I saw you sitting next to me in that charity ball."

"How about prayers?"

"Never."

"Then what do you believe in?"

"Technologies, and you."

"What are you faithful to?"

"You, only you."

"What is the something that occupies your mind all the time?"

"You, my dear."

"What would I do without your smart mouth?"

"I could ask you the same."

"What is the one thing that you are thinking of right now?"

"Freeing you from that dress. Peeling you out of that tight skirt."

"And do you think it is going to happen?"

"Positive."

"How will you react to a pregnancy?"

"You're not fucking serious."

"How will you react to an abortion?"

"What the fuck are you getting at?"

"How will you treat someone who doesn't give you a straight answer?"

"Okay, I will be answering you, dammit."

"Then will you please repeat your answer regarding pregnancy?"

"I will tolerate anything as long as it's with you."

"Abortion?"

"If that's your wish."

"Are you a fan of discussions and talks?"

"No."

"Will you be tolerating a discussion if it concerns you dearly?"

"Only if it concerns you."

"Who is the center of your universe?"

"You."

"Who do you wish to spend the rest of your life with?"

"You."

"Have you recently asked someone to move in with you?"

"Yes."

"Has that person given you an answer?"

"No, not yet. I don't even know if she's still considering it."

"Do you have anything significant prepared to celebrate your girlfriend's graduation?"

"Yes, and I hope the plan won't backfire."

"Are you expecting anything in return?"

"No."

"Will you object if she has prepared one?"

"No."

"Will you be happy to hear that you won't be home alone anymore?"

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"Mr Grey, can you please define the term 'one-way interview'?"

"Okay, fine, sorry."

"So are you happy to find out that you've got yourself a roommate?"

"If what you're telling me is true, then I will be over the moon."

"Very well, Mr Grey, are you free tonight?"

"I'm always free for you, baby."

"Will you be welcoming someone home after her graduation?"

"Yes, gladly."

"What is that someone to you?"

"My lover."

"How much do you love her?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Will you answer the question?"

"Enough to marry her."

There was a short pause, but Ana quickly regained her composure, acting like everything that he had revealed wouldn't be affecting her.

"How are you finding this interview?"

"If it isn't you sitting here asking me all this, you'd be kicked out of here the minute you asked that first question."

"Thank you for you time, Mr. Grey. I hope you have a great and pleasurable weekend." "I'll make sure of it. I hope you've got everything you need."

…

Now that the interview was out of the way, and the exams were long finished. Ana and Kate were able to enjoy their day huddling in their cosy apartment while watching horror movies. It was just too bad that none of them were big fans of chick lit or pure romance movies.

Kate had finished the article on the interview and it was already published on the last issue before their graduation.

"Why's he emailing me the answers?" Kate asked that night when she received the email from Christian.

"I asked him to." Ana shrugged.

"It's supposed to be an interview." Kate argued.

"Yeah, I know, and I did interview him." Ana stood her ground, although knowing her point was completely bullshitting, but she was still willing to play with Kate for a moment. She was just feeling up to it.

"And what did you ask him? You didn't record shit in that recorder I gave you." Kate said, pointing at the recorder sitting next to her computer.

"Cuz the content is private." Ana grinned cheekily.

"Just what exactly were you two talking about? For one, I know that you can't be having sex because his office is not sound proof." Kate was now reading the email.

"No we're not. Elliot went to inspect that room didn't he?" Ana laughed at Elliot's obsessiveness with constructions and buildings. Kate nodded. "And that's all he can tell you?" Ana giggled at the other possible trivia that could come out of Elliot's mouth regarding his brother's shabby office.

"Well, you've been there more than him, so obviously you know more about it than both of us."

"Wrong, Christian knows about it more than we all do." Ana pointed a finger at her, giving her a serious look, daring her to argue back. "Actually, no, Andrea and Ros probably knew better." Ana mused, Kate raised an eyebrow at her, wondering what she was talking about. "Anyways, just think of Vogue's seventy-three questions. That's the kind of interview I conducted with him using the time you snatched for me." Ana continued to talk, completely submerged in her own bubble. "Scratch that, he'd do just anything to promote his company now, so you didn't snatch that time."

"I think what you want to say is, he'd do anything for you." Kate deadpanned.


	7. Seven: I Will See You Now

**If you find the changes in this chapter hard to understand, please tell me.**

* * *

I Will See You Now

The Christian Grey had been harder and harder to snatch an interview with, the fact that Anastasia Steele was his girlfriend, Kate Kavanagh was his brother's girlfriend and the fact that he was investing in the university, the former two were rising to the spotlight and stepping on to the path toward fame.

People started to speculate the validity of the interview, since it was one requested by Kate, and done by his very own girlfriend. What outsiders didn't know was the fact that Christian had went past the phase where he needed to put himself out in the public to promote his company. Right now, he could act as the cold-hearted asshole, all powerful and mighty, rejecting interviews and asking for special treatments and privileges because he had the influence.

It was debatable whether it was fair for him to show up at their ceremony to deliver a speech, but it was already starting to show that the interview conducted by Ana and the article written by Kate was now one of the most valuable accomplishment of the school's media department. If someone were to ask for an interview with Christian, he would turn it down in a heartbeat, even if it was Kate who was asking, he would think twice about it. Now his face not only meant a talented handsome businessman, but also meant dollar signs to the world and to his fan base.

Due to his face, gaining publicity was easy, but that also meant more threats and followers coming at him. He could have women throwing themselves at him as he walked down a busy street in Manhattan when he was alone. He would receive fraud letters to lure his money. To him, it was probably time to consider hiring securities.

Upon the piles of applications, two stood out to him. When he started to look into them in more detail and interview him, he wasn't expecting Ana to jump on them like finding the long lost friend.

"Mr Grey, your appointment is here, should I send them in?" Andrea, the assistant that had been employed along with Ros knocked on his door and informed him. Once they got the new building done, there would be an intercom system so she didn't have to come to his office every time to announce something.

Christian simply nodded, because his focus was more on Ana than on the two people that he was about to interview as his security team members.

"You want me to be your COO, then where does that put Ros?" Ana asked, resuming their previous conversation before Andrea's announcement.

"No, you are the co-founder of this company, you don't need another title." Christian explained, he had been trying to get this to her since the start of the year but couldn't find an opportunity. "You know how this company works. You know everything about me and about this company, so I'm asking you to aid Sam with managing the public relations. You're not working for him, but they report to you."

"And I'm working for you?" She scoffed. "I didn't scoff because of the idea of working for you as a co-founder, I've got no problem with that."

"No, you're not working for me, I just thought since you don't want a position in this company, you can still help with it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ana was getting more and more confused.

"What I mean is," he took a deep breath and decided to just dump it on her, so he blurted out, "I want you to manage this company with me. We're on the same level, they report to me as well as to you."

"What the fuck are you thinking, trying to give a college graduate, especially a bachelor degreed girl half of your company that is still developing?" Her outburst was not in the scenarios that Christian had pictured before putting out this offer to her. He thought he had went through all kinds of reactions that he might get from her, and he thought he had a solution for all of the reactions, but he wasn't expecting this kind.

Christian was speechless, he was staring at her in utter shock, his mind racing but nothing came out of it.

"For one, Grey." Ana continued. "We haven't been talking a lot lately, because of your hectic work schedule and my finals. The last time we've seen each other is two months ago. Honestly, I'm surprised that our relationship is able to halt in its place and not move backwards." She pondered to herself. His face morphed from shock to fear, he didn't know what she was going to say, because her thinking was already beyond his imagination.

"Then what do you want me to do?" He sighed, the last thing he wanted was for her to leave him and find every reason to question his feelings for her.

"You can't just come back and give me half of your company to manage! You can't possibly think this can fill the void spaces during the times when you weren't here with me." She didn't sound angry, but more hurt to be precise. He had no idea why she would be offended and hurt by this gesture, because he thought this would be a way to show her just how much she meant to him.

"I'm not trying to do that, Ana. Though I do wish to know if you still want this." He gestured between the two of them, afraid of the answer, almost wanting to cower beneath his desk and cover up his ears to never hear her reply.

"Of course I do." She cried.

"Then believe me, when I said I believe in you and your ability to manage what we've created. If something were to go wrong and to happen to me, you will be my next of kin." He said sincerely. "I mean it, this has nothing to do with sentiments."

"If it has nothing to do with sentiments," she said in a small voice, "why would you entrust your life's work to a college girl with a bachelor degree that you don't even know all that much about?"

"But the premise is, I do know you."

"What do you think your employees would think? How are you expecting your family to take it? I'm just your little girlfriend for all they know."

"Don't you dare think yourself as my petty little girlfriend, Anastasia Steele." Christian chastised in all seriousness. "Yes you are my girlfriend, my lover. I mean everything I said in that interview you've conducted at the start of this year. I don't give a fuck about what they think, because they will just have to accept the fact that you _are_ the co-founder of the company, and you _will_ be managing it whether they like it or not."

"Are you trying to butter things up so I can accept it?"

"No, it is a fact written on paper."

"What paper?"

"My will. You can ask my lawyer." He stated, it was like dropping another bomb. From the earlier reactions that he had gotten, his plan would backfire on him in full force.

"You have a fucking will?" Ana's expression held nothing but astonishment, she didn't want to think that he would need it because something would be happening to him.

"Yes, I think it's time for me to plan out the future of this masterpiece."

"Mr Grey." Andrea cleared her throat, interrupting their conversation once again.

"I thought I told you to send them in." Christian frowned at her assistant, realizing that there was no one standing in his office other than Ana who was making herself comfortable on the chair next to his desk, acting as if this was also her office. Not that he cared one bit, because it was just down-right hot.

"Mr Grey." Two very bulk looking guys stepped in to the room. They've obviously served on battlefields, just from the look in their eyes was enough to tell that they've experienced things security guards wouldn't even dream of going through.

Before Christian was able to say a word to greet them, he heard a gasp coming from the side. He looked at his girlfriend to check on her, but she wasn't done surprising him.

"Jason Taylor." She stared at the buzz cut, a look of disbelieve across her face, "and,

Luke Sawyer." She then turned to the other man. The two men turned toward her, hardly containing their bewilderment. "Jesus, this world is so goddamn small." Ana stood up and launched herself at them, and they caught her as if they were expecting it.

"Are you two going to talk or not?" She scolded, pulling away slightly from the two men who were now looking at Christian. "Oh, don't mind him." She followed their gaze to find his boyfriend narrowing his eyes at her. He had always had an issue with her being too close to males, even if they were older or they were purely friends or acquaintances. "If he doesn't hire you, I'll make sure you're on my payroll." She patted her chest confidently. "Does daddy know you two came back?"

"No." Was all Taylor replied.

"We just finished serving our last year." Sawyer added.

"Then why are you here?" Ana asked, this was a form of interview, but she was more curious than anything. She knew they would be doing a great job at protecting her boyfriend, so she just wanted to use the chance to get to know them.

"Job offer." Sawyer shrugged. Taylor had always been the quiet and calm one, while Sawyer was a tad bit more reckless and more talkative. Though they both had discipline in the army, but it still didn't change who they are.

"So you like the pay he's offering?" Ana jabbed her thumb at her boyfriend who was still paying close attention to their interaction.

"Your man is really generous, I must say, Ana." Sawyer said and Taylor nodded in agreement.

"Just how much is he offering?" It was now Ana's turn to look suspicious. "Now come to think of it, I think I should be managing the company's financial sector, Christian, who knows if you're going to spend half a trillion on some useless thing." She turned to her boyfriend.

"You can manage my money for all I care." Christian shrugged. "Though I do think I'm spending it on the right places."

"What else did you buy? Don't tell me you really spent a trillion on some crap." Ana raised a challenging eye brow.

"No, I don't think I've got that big of a credit in the bank anywhere." Christian grinned at her, but he did spend a fortune on something else and she would be finding out soon enough.

"So you did buy something, but it's just not a trillion."

"You know me too well." He pretended to look guilty but he really didn't feel that way. "Now, tell me about your two friends."

"I thought I don't report to you, Grey." Ana smirked before turning back to Taylor and Sawyer. "Don't worry, the job's definitely yours." She winked, "but before you two start working, I think you two owe a visit to Ray."

"That we do." They sighed. The two of them were best buddies in the military camp, and they were the closest to Ray in the army as well when Ray was still in service.

"Go, or do I have to offer you a jet?" Ana asked the two men who were still standing stoically at the spot. With that, they gave a courtly nod to Christian before saluting Ana who returned it.

"Are they working for you or me?" Christian chuckled, finding it funny at how the interview went down.

"You." She replied dully.

"But I didn't even interview them." He reasoned, giving her a cute pout, just to play with her, although he would've hire them anyway.

"Yeah, but you're paying them." She answered with a shrug as if it was a matter of fact.

"So you're hiring people for me now. Remind me again, are you working for me?" He joked, earning a glare from her.

"Nope, but I won't say 'no' to controlling this company."

"You're the boss."

…

All those people that shut the door in his face when he went there for their support, just a few years back, they laughed at his young age, thinking he was too ambitious for his own good. Many of them advised him to go back and finish college in his Ivy League, half of which who had turned their backs against him didn't even bother to read through his plan. Out of the very small group of people who actually read and approved of his plan, the professor that took a liking in Ana was one of them.

The professor asked Ana to do the presentation that she did in Harvard not only because he saw the potential in her like he saw in Christian, but he wanted her to achieve something higher than him; the only obstacle was the fact that Ana didn't want to be a businesswoman.

For one, Ana had a perfect time playing volleyball, leading the school team to their rare consecutive victory in the championship game; playing tennis with amateur to earn extra pocket money; working in a hardware store just to have a stable income. All of those had little to no connection with the courses she was taking, but that was what she was passionate about, so that was what she would pursue.

Before her path crossed with the now successful businessman, the first Prince of Seattle, she had envisioned her future to be having a profitable job as a lawyer consultant for businesses. When she thought of the job as a consultant, she had thought the job would give her more time to focus on the other passion that she had, and that was volleyball. She thought, a consultant would have a lighter workload, when she didn't have any client; and when she did have a client, she would be working extra hard to help them, and she would have a high payment. She could travel around the nation and eventually the world, get into the volleyball community and possibly let herself drown in the world of beach volleyball. She wanted to have fun and have a carefree life in the future, but right now, she didn't know if her plan would still work.

Her boyfriend was making more money than he had planned to make in the starting phase of his career, and she knew she was benefitting from it. The fame and attention he had received wasn't decreasing any time soon. They would see each other less, as she would still be living in her dorm until her graduation, he would still be travelling a lot to meet potential clients and build a reputation or perhaps expand the knowledge of his name.

The only times that they could spend together were the gaps between her job hunting, studying and his travelling. Their schedule wasn't packed, but it was hard to find a compromising time. There were times when they would get off on reading fan mails over Skype, laughing and cussing at the mails that he was receiving. Even if some of them were threats.

When they weren't having sex or fucking, they were talking, but that meant they were still in good terms. However, the time when they were going over the threats, she suddenly felt distant from him. He had been dismissing her easily and expecting her to meet his every demand, even though he knew her schedule wasn't any less packed than his own. Ana wanted to believe that it was work that was stressing him out and it was the pressure that he was constantly under, that turned the amiable man she fell in love with to this cold son-of-a-bitch that would thrust the envelope directly back at her when she gently placed it on his office table. He wouldn't even give a damn about where the envelope actually land, whether it struck her or where it hit her, he buried himself in work.

Since the interview, he had been spending less time with her and more time working. She had been making time for him, but he would cancel it last minute, and he had been that irresponsible man for longer than she could bear. The more times he denied her request to hangout or simply go out for dinner, the more she thought she had imagined this relationship and imagined the past; she had even thought she had dreamed about the good times that they had spent together during the first few days after her interview with him.

Right after her last exam, she had dropped everything and decided to confront him. Her graduation was not far, and she knew she had to plan her future, but she needed to know if he would be with her.

Ana just could not believe how could a relationship like theirs took a downturn just like flipping a page in the book. It made her wonder if he wanted to flip to a next chapter and start over without her distraction.

"Christian, whatever you're trying to achieve here by ignoring me or using me as your emotional punchbag, I think you've accomplished it. I don't want to put a label on everything and certainly not this relationship, but right now, I felt like it is a sick relationship." Ana bolted into his office, sat down in the chair in front of his desk, locked his door and refused to leave before the issue was resolved.

"What do you want, Ana?"

"What do I want? Are you hearing yourself, Christian?" She took a deep breath to keep her temper at bay, she didn't want this to turn into an argument. "You've been ignoring me, and whenever you're not ignoring me, what comes out of your mouth is nothing but complains about how I've not been helpful lately." She paused, trying to swallow the tears back and stop them from rolling down her cheeks, but it was hard. "I've been trying to reach out, I've sparing a lot of time from my schedule for you, but you're being this asshole that cancels it at the last minute with the lamest excuse."

"But you've accepted it."

"That's because I fucking love you." She shouted, standing up from the seat, unable to remain seated anymore. "Honestly, Christian, if this is going to be the dynamic of our relationship in the future, I'm not sure if I'll be able to stay in it any longer. I've been trying to understand you. I get that you're busy and the company is thriving. If a girlfriend isn't what you want right now, if a submissive is what you're looking for, then please tell me. We can avoid so much more emotions if you can just say the word and tell me to leave."

There was a short pause, the temperature of the room dropped to below zero instantly. Ana's tears seemed to have been frozen by the icy cold atmosphere. No one made a sound and no one moved. She was looking at him expectantly, waiting patiently for an answer, but his eyes wasn't even opened. She could see the pain in him, and she knew what she had hinted implicitly would hurt him. He had told her repeatedly that the last thing he wanted to know in the world was the fact that she had broken up with him. He had reassured her that she was her world, but perhaps the pressure and the workload had really changed him.

The two words that came out of his mouth next were the gelid knife that sliced her heart in half. She was prepared for him to say something to justify his actions, and she would be accepting anything he would feed her, but never in a thousand years was she expecting these two words.

"Then leave."

* * *

 **One more chapter left.**

 **I'm thinking if this story needs an epilogue, but on the other hand, it's a short story, and I don't think an epilogue fits. I'll think about it, and the said epilogue may not exist until a very long time later; it's still pending. So, I'll be marking it as complete after the next chapter, but if there ever is an update from this 'complete[d]' story, then please remember that it's the epilogue.**

 **For those who read the story I've submitted to the Sisterhood Group challenge (Days of Fifty Challenge, Chapter 12, Home Sweet Home), thank you for all the kind reviews! Would you like me to post it, so for those who wants to diss it or say something that's not nice can say their part?**


	8. Eight: The Great Revelation

**A lot of you said it is confusing and you don't understand the last chapter, I can see why. So, I'm going to explain it here. I hope it will help.**

 **I also liked the interview very much, by the way. As to why the change? Chapter six (the one with the interview) ended on a good note, or perhaps even perfect, and the beginning of the previous chapter showed a conversation between the couple where they hired two bodyguards (old** **acquaintances of Ana's at the same time). It is somewhat the peak of their relationship, but Ana's graduating, she's going to think about her future after the exams, so she's having a lot on her plate. On the other hand, Christian's company is still in its developing process, it is still young and demands a lot of attention from him. At that stage, Christian has to devote himself to the company, which brings a lot of strain to their relationship. And everyone knows that Christian's not good at keeping his mouth shut and his hot tempered, so naturally, he will be taking it out on something. Ana is unfortunately that someone who he spends the spare time with (when he's not focusing on work), and Ana will be asking about his progress because she cares about him. Then, at some point, he finds talking to Ana tiring and starts to act as if their relationship is a burden, and that pushed Ana over to her breaking point.**

 **I hope I'm making sense here. Understand that, letting emotions dictate a relationship is going to blind them from their true feelings for each other. They love one another, but there are other factors that will affect their relationship one way or another, it will never be a smooth sail all the way.**

 **Some wondered how I'm going to end the story with just one chapter, well, you're about to find out. *Hint* notice the length? It's long, and I mean _long_. I didn't split it simply because I don't think it can be split since it all happened in one day.**

* * *

The Great Revelation Behind a Successful Man

Five years devoted to building a company, pouring everything he had into the construction, Christian had made his first million not long after he uttered the ugliest two words to the best thing that had happened to him.

To a lot of males, when he was going to make a move, which could be life changing, for example, propose, they get nervous and when they get nervous, they might doubt the love from their partner, and when that happened they would distance themselves from the partner. In Christian's defense, it was his insecurities and his nervousness, in addition, the stress and pressure he was under with work, his behavior was an indication that he was insecure and he was nervous. On the verge of tearing his hair out, Ana went to him and told him how she felt about their relationship, and this pushed him over the edge, he let his insecurities wash over him and thought of the worst. It was the typical Christian Grey thinking. He thought she was leaving her, so he decided to make the first move, and thought it might save him from the devastation. Blinded by frustration and rage, he failed to see the point that Ana was making, he failed to see the problem that he was causing and the impact of his behavior toward the people that he loved.

Ana wasn't exactly the victim either, she knew that Christian had trouble understanding how the effect of his actions would be reflected on the people closest to him, sometimes. He had confided in her about his piece of information the very first day they were together. She was hurt by Christian's attitude and hurt by his rejection when she offered to help. In the end, it all came down to toleration and understanding. In a relationship, tolerating the others and understanding them would be the best to let a miscommunication dissolve, however, when emotions started to play a role, it would stir everything.

Today, wearing a black gown with purple velvet lining, Anastasia Steele stood next to her best friend and roommate, Kate who was with a crimson color, as Taylor and Sawyer took pictures of them with their phone.

They were in suits and ties, looking everything like a security member, but for Ana was told by them that they were here to attend her graduation as family members and not as Grey's security. Ana couldn't care less about what Christian wanted to do with the newly hired security detail because she thought it wasn't necessary at the current stage as he hadn't reached the influential and powerful rank in Seattle.

"I'm so sorry that Ray can't make it." Kate whispered in Ana's ear for the third time in the last five minutes since they've taken the photos.

"I don't mind, he's going to get a live show from Luke or Jason." Ana shrugged. In all honesty, since her fallout with Christian, she had changed her view toward life. Before him, she had never thought she would be looking at life as lightly as she was now, she used to enjoy everything and try hard in everything she did, but now, she would only be pretending and when she really liked something, she would be sure to invest in it bit by bit. It was what playing in the volleyball and tennis community taught her.

"But you wish he's here don't you?" Kate asked, and Ana just shrugged, she didn't want him here because she didn't think it was a big deal.

"Katie!" Eamon's low pitched voice stopped Kate from firing another question at Ana who was more than thankful for the interruption at the moment.

"Daddy!" Kate shouted and jumped right into his arms, her best friend long forgotten. Ana took it as her cue to leave and find her seat in the auditorium where her name was written. Fortunately, the ceremony was starting soon, so she didn't have to sit there as if she was an abandoned child.

"Why are you in purple and not drab like all of us?" A student she recognized from one of her business classes approached her, sitting down next to her. From the looks on her face, she just wanted to make small talks, and Ana wasn't going to decline the chat.

"The perks of taking double major, I guess." Ana shrugged with a small smile. "You get to choose which color you want."

"And so you chose the color for law instead for business?" The girl said, feigning to take offense.

"Well, there are many reasons to why I chose this color, but you can say that I want to match Kate's color as much as possible. She's crimson." Ana explained. That was part of the reason, but the better part was that she didn't want to have anything to do with business, because a businessman had hurt her deeply and she wanted to act naïve for a while about the situation.

"By the way," the girl continued, not wanting the conversation to die down to cause an awkward silence, so she said, getting Ana's attention again, "do you know who's the guest speaker today?" She asked.

During the rehearsal of the ceremony, they were told that there would be a guest speaker speaking at near the end of the celebration. Very little was said about the guest speaker but Ana knew the instant when they mentioned the agriculture department. It was more than obvious to her, since she was the ambassador.

"I think it's the guy who sponsored the agriculture research or funded something in the agriculture department." Ana pretended to think and took a guess, though she was more than certain that it would be her ex-boyfriend who would be showing up and standing behind the podium, bullshitting.

"Mr Grey?" The girl's eyes widened.

"I guess he's pretty well-known then." Ana shrugged, voicing her comments, but biting back the remark on his age. She wanted to tell the girl that he was just a year older than them and he was just starting his business, there was no need for him to be addressed with such formality.

"Who wouldn't be talking about him." The girl whom Ana still couldn't remember the name of said, "I mean look at him," Ana wanted to scoff, but thought better of revealing her relationship with the man, "he's hot." That made Ana crack a grin, but not because she was proud of the compliment, but it was because of the fact that it was all the girl could remember about him.

"How'd you know that he's hot? Have you seen him?" Ana feigned interest in the discussion, just the reaction that every other female on campus would have.

"You showed him around, didn't you remember?" The girl pointed out, shocked that Ana couldn't recall touring the school with a hot guy next to her.

"No," Ana pretended to ponder for a moment before shaking her head, "I don't exactly pay attention to who I take around the school, because I represent the school and of course, I have to leave a good impression, so clearly I'm going to be focusing on how I present myself to them rather than how they are presented." Ana reasoned, hoping she would buy it.

"But, damn, the guy's hot." The girl said dreamily and Ana let out a meaningless chuckle. "Do you remember anything about him?" She asked. "Or do you think I can maybe talk to him or get his signature later after he hands out our diploma?"

Upon hearing that, Ana almost let her eyeballs pop out of their sockets. She knew that Christian would be delivering a speech, but she wouldn't even dream of coming into direct contact with him. Regaining her composure, she silently prayed that her reaction was just an internal fright and not something she had shown. Turning to see if the girl had been looking at her weirdly, she was reassured when the girl was only staring at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

"Uh, no. I honestly can't remember any guests' information." Ana admitted, it was partially true. When she was asked to show someone around campus, she was usually given the background to study, but when she was asked to show Christian around, she laughed at the information she was given by the school with Christian right beside her, since she knew everything about him. "I've been an ambassador since my second year. I think I've been constantly meeting with businessmen and lawyers, then there are the other visitors. So, I'm sorry I can't recall any detail." Ana apologized not so apologetically. In truth, she knew everything that there was about Christian; apart from the play he had pulled the last time they met.

"Oh." The girl nodded in understanding disappointedly. "Now come to think of it, you were constantly seen with guests around campus and missing classes." She said with a finger on her chin as she thought through the past.

Ana could only nod, she was trying to phrase her question in a way that didn't seem too eager and forward. "Hey," she said, getting the attention of the girl next to her. She realized that people were slowly making there way toward their assigned seats.

"You said that the guest speaker is going to hand us our diploma?" She asked once the girl turned her attention to Ana.

"Yeah. Don't you remember whoever it was that led us through the rehearsal told us? She keeps reminding us to be at our best behavior." The girl really liked talking, was all Ana could think of after the first word of the sentence was heard. "Usually it's the Dean or a huge supporter of the school or the Chair of the School Board that hands out the diploma, but I think this year will be the first time they're allowing a young businessman to do the honor." Ana quickly snapped back from her own empty mind, just in time to hear the last part of the young lady's tedious speech. She nodded, indicating that she had heard her, because she didn't know what to reply.

"Ladies and gentlemen." The Dean's deep voice wasn't sounding any younger, it was still the old man that wanted to be like Dumbledore but was far from him in all the ways possible at the same time. Ana had always had reserved opinions regarding this old professor, but the Dean just happened to like the kind of student that Ana represented.

Ana zoned out the minute the Dean started talking, she had heard it once already during the rehearsal, so she knew what was in it and there was no point hearing again. She noticed the girl next to her checked her watch and pursed her lips, maybe it was because it started later than planned? Ana thought, trying to decipher the meaning of the girl's moves. If she wasn't so bored herself, she would never pay attention to any other person other than the speaker on stage, because it wasn't someone she knew nor cared. Thinking through the talks she had had with the girl next to her, she concluded that the girl in the color drab next to her was a know-it-all. It wouldn't be a bad thing if she wasn't that talkative, and that made her think of high school where this girl would be certainly classified as a nerd.

The ceremony was just the background music that wasn't helping Ana concentrate. Although she wasn't thinking about anything at the time, she could feel a penetrating stare that was burning a whole through her soul, and she didn't even need to find the source to know where it came from. Rolling her eyes subtly and groaning inwardly, she shifted in her seat, growing uncomfortable under the glare and she was ready to escape from it by going to the bathroom. Then, it was Kate's valedictorian speech, which distracted Ana from the gaze that fell upon her. It was a good speech, fun and entertaining, and a good distraction.

Next up was the guest speaker, and Ana seriously contemplated whether she was going to stand up and leave or remain and listen, because both options wouldn't reflect to him the fact that she had actually thought everything through.

"Thank you, thank you." Christian said through the microphone attached to the podium in front of him, silencing the applauding crowd. What he was starting to say next was a bunch of dedication and generic words about how his company works. Ana was just about to zone out when she heard a loud gasp from the crowd.

"Many of you know me as the founder of Grey Enterprise Holdings and the CEO of that said company, but there is a saying, that 'behind every successful man there is a woman'; and I will tell you that I didn't believe it until I met the co-founder of the very company." His eyes scanned the room, obviously trying to meet Ana's, but she wasn't giving him the time of the day; she deliberately avoided his gaze and only stared in his general direction, listening but trying to hide her surprise. "I have a family that offered their support, but the co-founder had been with me every step of the way. When I'm met with an obstacle, she is there to face it with me; when there is a missing piece of the puzzle, she is there to help me find it; when the company is in its darkest days during its development, she is there to guide me to the other side. She is my torch, the company's light and I hope one day, she will be here to continue the legacy with me." There was a pause as he got out of the personal anecdote atmosphere. "We've all made mistakes in our lives and we will all make mistakes in the future, and one thing that I've learned from building this company is that, no matter how big of a mistake that you've made or how messed up the mistake has led you to, don't dwell on it. Think about ways to make up. If you don't fix it and let it become the biggest regret in your life, then the person or the thing you wronged must be insignificant to you, because if you truly are remorseful of the mistake, no matter how expensive it is, you will make it up; because you've got nothing to lose. Don't beat yourself up for a moment of weakness, because everyone will have that moment, so, strengthen yourself and make sure you pay for it." He ended the speech, again with his eyes firmly locked on Ana. He was searching her face for understanding, he prayed that she understood that his speech was for her. It may not have been an apology to his asshole moves, but it was his way of telling her that he would be making it up to her and he would be paying for his expensive mistake.

"Thank you." He bowed his head toward the audience after breaking the briefest eye contact he had made with Ana, offering a light smile to the crowd and moved off the podium.

The students were then called up to receive their diplomas. They were ordered in alphabetical order in last names, and Ana just happened to be so much later than Kate. When Kate reached Grey, she gave him a cold-hard glare that broke him from the fake mask he was wearing for a second just to give her an apologetic look. Every other female who walked by and shook his hand all took the chance and took a close look at him. Once they've realized just how young he was, some of them were trying to make their pass at him, but he maintained his boardroom face just to be polite.

Reluctantly, she dragged her foot to stage as her name was called. When Christian took the diploma from the plate in front of him, instead of shaking her hand and handing it to her like he did with every other student, he stuck out his hand for her to shook and pulled her closer, prolonging the handshake.

"Fuck you, Grey." Ana cursed, referring to the speech and also to what he was doing right now.

He flinched when the curse word came out, but when he took a closer look at her eyes, he realized that she was playing with him, and he loosened up, letting out a breath that he didn't know he was holding. "Anytime, baby." Lifting up their connected hands, he pecked the back of her hand lightly, treating her as his queen. When their eyes met again, he winked at her, a smile broke on Ana's face; and, when he finally handed her the diploma with the unoccupied hand, she mouthed the three words that he thought he was never going to hear from her again. 'I love you', she articulate inaudibly which brought a smile on his lips, the first one genuine in months.

…

Out of the corner of Ana's eyes, she saw the guest speaker talking to the Dean discreetly, their eyes glancing in her direction from time to time. From the way the Dean's face lit up, Ana rolled her eyes and turned back to the conversation between Kate and her family, she was more than certain that Grey was chatting to the Dean about her.

"What are your plans after you graduate, Ana?" Eamon asked, they had been treating Ana like a second daughter and was very protective of her. Kate's mother had suggested to have Ana and Kate work as interns in Kavanagh Media after they both graduate, and Eamon was seriously considering the idea.

Truth was, if Ana really wanted some help from influential people, she could work with Carrick Grey in his firm, she could help Christian with his legal papers and help with his company, she could even work in Eamon's legal department, but as appealing as all the opportunities and ties she had in front of her, it wasn't what she wanted. People would criticize her and tell her she had too big of a dream, tell her that she should be seizing the chance that she had. She had the ties that everyone dreamed of having, but she wasn't going to take advantage of it. It made people envy her, and made the ones who were already jealous even more hateful of her. She wanted to be a business lawyer consultant, because that would free her from work from time to time so she could play volleyball, tennis and snowboard.

"I actually want to be a consulting business lawyer." Ana said in a small voice, still thinking her initial plan was too ambitious, because she had been laughed at before when she was asked to share the dream job that she was looking for. "I still want to play volleyball and tennis part time, so I don't want my career to take up my whole day, that's why I sort of want a lighter job." She explained, feeling the need to explain herself to the Kavanagh family.

"You can come work for my company, as a consultant." Eamon suggested sincerely.

"And we can play volleyball all the time together, I can even play tennis with you from time to time, or maybe we can go skiing or snowboarding if you want." Kate finished for her father, even though it wasn't what her father had in mind, but her father would not want to see his baby girl upset so he would agree to whatever Kate wanted. Ana thought for a moment, the offer was very appealing, but she didn't want to take advantage of the kinship she felt with Kate's family.

"Consider it, Ana." Eamon encouraged. "Oh, and here comes your boyfriend." He said in a clipped tone that was too subtle for Ana to detect, but Kate shot him a dirty glare before turning to greet the incoming guest with a dumbfounded Ana.

"My boyfriend?" She questioned. Kate pointed to Grey and she rolled her eyes.

"Right." Ana muttered to herself, remembering that it wasn't common knowledge that they had a fallout. "Boyfriend, my ass." She huffed, despite the glare that she was sending him made him wince a little, he still approached her.

"But I love your ass." Christian's broke into a grin when he heard her huff, he knew she was fighting to give into him and he was doing everything he could to make sure she would be coming home with him tonight. "Congratulations, baby." He told her, wrapping both of his arms around her waist tightly, she planted her palm on his firm chest in an attempt to push him away, but the thought was already wavering in her mind. After what she had uttered to him when she was taking the diploma from him, she knew she was goner and she knew it would be only a matter of time before she told him to 'fuck it all'.

"Fucking hypocrite." She snide playfully without sparing him a proper glance.

"Why?" He asked, knowing full well the reason behind the accusation, but he just wanted to keep her talking so he could bury his nose in her neck, inhale her scent and drown in them.

"Do you know Eamon Kavanagh?" Instead of answering him, she asked, and the reaction from him wasn't anything Ana had thought.

"Yes, he's one of the many that shut the door in my face, telling me to get a fucking life and stop living in a fucking dream. He's one of the many that thinks I'm too young to know anything about business." He growled, keeping his voice muffled and low so that only she could hear. "I'm sorry that you consider him as your family, but I'm no fan of his." He admitted.

"Oh, then I'm not taking you there." She decided, shrugging like it wasn't a big deal, which it actually wasn't.

"Thank you, baby." He sighed gratefully. "I want to warn you of something though, I hope you don't mind being on stage to accept an award." He said quickly, not wanting to repeat himself, fearing the possible consequences.

"What award?"

"You'll see." He said, still holding a breath when the Dean clinked his glass to get everyone's attention.

"I hope everyone's having a good time." The Dean said in to the microphone on the stand in front of him. "Courtesy to our guest speaker today, Mr Christian Grey, a lovely young man, I'd like to kick start a tradition using this platform." Chatters and whispers started to sound. At the same time, Ana turned to Christian with a questioning look, but Christian didn't meet her gaze, so she just turned back in confusion.

"Graduation had always been so serious, even though it should be something fun and carefree since everyone's leaving to live a more independent life. So, I think it's fare enough to use the afterparty, or this farewell party, as a place to present a few awards. They are purely elected for entertainment purposes." The Dean continued, introducing the tradition that he wanted to start. "There will be two recipients each year, for two different titles." He continued, "and this year, after a serious of discussion between Mr Grey, myself and a group of other staff, we have decided to award our very first certificate to the co-founder of Grey Enterprise Holdings—"

"What the fuck are you trying to do, Grey?" Ana whispered in a hush tone at the male standing behind her, whom she still wasn't sure the relationship status of.

"Before I reveal the name of the recipient, can we please have Mr Grey on stage please." The Dean requested; Christian let go of Ana and went for the stage, but not before kissing her temple affectionately. "The recipient is a member of the school Ambassador family; she double-majored, and her achievements in academic areas are just as significant as she is to the school volleyball team. She's one of the two that got chosen to attend the exchange program in Harvard."

"When it comes to attracting attention," Christian took over the mic and added, "she's just as talented. Not only did she caught the attention of the school administration, she's also caught the attention of so many other people. So, as the co-founder of GEH and my partner, I proudly announce, in front of all the witness the 'most agreeable, attentive and attractive partner in crime' award belongs to Miss Anastasia Steele." He declared, and witnessed the Dean shaking hands with Ana before handing her the diploma. After the taking a photo of the three of them, Christian grabbed Ana by the waist and dipped her head, giving her a swift kiss on the lips before pulling her back to her own feet. The crowd erupted into cheers, squeals, whistles and 'aww's. Essentially, every noise one could make, altogether covering the music in the background and the throat clearing from the Dean.

"For our second recipient this morning, it'll be really obvious when I tell you what this person's role was during the ceremony earlier. The title of the award is to the 'Paranoid in Chief', courtesy to Yahoo for the name." The Dean continued, already stirring up a lot of conversation from the student body that was gathered around them. Some of them were still confused but another group immediately understood it as a show of affection from Christian toward Ana. Some of the sensitive ones had pieced the pieces together and realized that all Christian was doing was trying to get Ana to forgive him.

"This award is awarded to this person because, according to one of Mr Grey's personal stories, this person has been constantly doubting him and mistaking him for the worst a man could be, but this person is doing it for the benefit of their friend. So, this award belongs to our valedictorian today, Miss Steele's best friend and roommate, Miss Kate Kavanagh." The Dean raised his voice to emphasize the moment. Kate gaped at Ana in confusion who shrugged while giggling silently next to Christian.

"Before we go," Ana asked the Dean for the microphone and decided to do something for Christian in return, "I'd like to recognize the efforts that the founder has put in to arranging this award." She gave Christian a wicked grin as she place a hand on his shoulder before she continued to address the crowd. "So, I've came up with a spontaneous award that I will be sure to hand to him in person soon, but I'd like to present him with the 'always in a meeting' award to show his devotion toward this project and his life's work." She said.

The proclamation sounded boring, but to Christian, he knew that it was her mocking him, and the award title was supposed to be an embarrassment and a mockery to him. He was glad that no one in the crowd would understand the message she was trying to convey to him.

…

"You ready to go, baby?" Christian said in her ear not long after the confusion died down and the attention diverted from the strange award ceremony.

"What was the ceremony for?" Ana asked, following him out of the room after saying goodbye to her friends.

"Just trying to show you off. It's a little selfish act of mine." He shrugged, still not letting go of her hand.

"You know that I haven't completely forgiven you right?" Ana turned back to look at him, their hands still intertwined in between them.

"I know, and I'm planning on spending the rest of my life making it up to you." He answered, giving her hand a squeeze.

"I haven't chastise you of the sweet time you took when you hand me my diploma." She said, and when he was about to remark, she held up a hand preventing him from talking. "I'm not finished." She announced, pouting her lips like a little toddler, but he found it adorable. "You do know that if you didn't tell me that there's something you need to show me, I won't be following you out of that door as willingly as I am now, right?" She asked, raising an eyebrow as if daring him to say something smart.

"I know, baby, I know." He decided to play safe and not joke around, because he wasn't sure how much had she actually forgiven her. She may have taken him back because she loved him, and he knew she hadn't forgiven him completely.

"Do I have another name other than 'baby'?" She asked, sounding like the interview she had conducted for Kate.

"No." Was all he said before kissing the pouty lips that she was sticking in his face.

"Babe." She whined.

"Phew, I'm so glad that's not a question coming out of your mouth." He joked, pulling her back to him and wrapping his arm around her waist as they walked down the street to the nearest coffee shop so he could buy her the macaroons that she demanded to have since he dragged her out of the celebration.

"What? Did all the questioning remind you of something?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"Maybe." He shrugged feigning indifference, but a smile broke after just one look at his girl.

"Where are we going now?" She asked once they got into his car, the R8 that he bought with the first million he had earned. It was really new and it was the first time she had seen it in use.

"My office." He said, but once she saw the address, she knew it wasn't his current office.

"Your new building?" She asked.

"Smart girl." He complimented, causing Ana to roll her eyes.

"I know where your old office is, bastard." She retorted, calling him the name in a smaller voice just in case she offended him.

"Wrong, I am a _lucky_ bastard." He pointed out and corrected contentedly, making her frown. "I am very fortunate to have you, my dear, in my life." He wanted to say 'girlfriend', but he wasn't sure what would she think of the term.

"I'd like to pretend that you didn't do what you did to me that day, and pretend that we didn't break up that day." Ana sighed, detecting the undertone from his words. He nodded, knowing that she wasn't finished. "Under one condition, Christian." She said seriously.

"You name it and you have it." Christian replied with confidence, he'd do anything to have her back and anything to keep her, because he needed her.

"There will be nothing of that sort in the future."

"Do you want to hear my version?" Christian nodded in agreement with the circumstance that Ana brought up, then asked through the silence in the car.

"Okay." Ana nodded, seeing their destination moving closer to them, just one block away.

"I'd like to clear the air before I show you what I need to show you." He nearly said the word 'presents' out loud, but he didn't want to spoil what he had planned and he wasn't sure how she would take it, either.

"I'm listening."

"When you interviewed me and asked me if I have prepared something for you as a graduation gift." She nodded, remembering the incident. "And when I was searching for security details, you asked me if I'm spending a lot of money, and I said I spent it in the right places." Again, she nodded in remembrance, curious of where it was going. "I am sure you know about the theory where when someone is nervous about presenting something to a lover, they sometimes distance themselves."

"What are you suggesting…" Ana whispered, but she still let him continued.

"I believe you have also heard of the theory of when you want to surprise someone, you deprive or deny them of it, making them expecting less from you, so when you actually present it to them, they will be happier since they're not expecting you to give them that."

"This makes more sense." Ana thought to herself, or maybe she had said it out loud with her mouth. One way or another, Christian paused and then continued.

"I don't know what came over me and stupidly thought you'll like the gifts better if you don't have a higher expectation." He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated at how he could possibly think the way he did at that time. He sounded pathetic and pitiful now that he was admitting everything out loud. "I told you it was a moment of weakness that make me push you away, but it's not the entire truth, it's part of the excuse that I found." He sighed before continuing. "I just started to think of the worst and let the what ifs consume me when I am nervous about how you'd react."

"You're afraid that I might reject or not like your gifts." Ana said in a small voice, she knew exactly what he was going through. Ever since the first time he dumped his shit on her, confided in her about some of his most personal thoughts and feelings, she had learnt that she knew him better than he knew himself. "I know that, Christian. That's what I've been thinking about. I know you better than you think, I know what goes on in your mind, Christian. You've confided in me enough about yourself that summer, making it very hard for me to not understand you. You might be confused right now about your own behavior, but I'm not, I understand. I know that you're just doubting yourself and letting your insecurities eat you, but rest assure that I will love everything you give me. I didn't ask for anything but you insisted on gifting me something, it's enough for me to know that you're not in your element the last time we met." She told him in a soothing tone, calming him down as he parked the car in the under garage.

"You really are my soul mate, Ana." He breathed in her scent as he hugged her in appreciation.

"Do you own this building?" She asked, changing the subject and averting the sensitive topic once they stepped into the elevator.

"Yes." He nodded. "I didn't tell you because I want to surprise you with something inside." He added, "I would've told you about the building and show you the plans but I don't want to let you see my office, so I decided to just show you the whole thing altogether."

"Interesting theory. Why can't I see your office?" She inquired curiously.

"You'll see, baby." Was all he answered before they stepped out of the elevator on the twentieth floor.

"Is it not done yet?" She noticed that there was no sign of life on this floor, and she recalled that she didn't see any cars in the garage either when they entered.

"It is done, but I haven't move anyone here because I want to show it to you first."

"Why?"

"Founder of GEH, remember?" He nudged her shoulder with his lightly, his hand still grasped on to hers tightly.

" _Co_ -founder." She corrected with a proud cheeky grin on her face.

Following him to his office, she was greeted by a desk near the window and a leather chair behind it. On the far side of the room was a door to a small living room with couches on either sides of a coffee table; a mini bar was present at the corner of that small room. The curtain were drawn, dimming the light in the room and making the atmosphere more cosy and relaxing. The closed door on the same side as the small living room represented the bathroom of the en suite.

"Why did you put a room like this here?" Christian asked, gesturing the room they were in as he closed the door behind him so the bright light from the office wouldn't be an intruder to the dimness in the room they were in.

"Huh? What do you mean me?" She scanned around the room, finally resting her eyes on him, staring at him, tilting her head sideways.

"Do you not recognize it?" He chuckled.

"Recognize what?" She was still confused. Brushing her fingertips on the smooth expensive leather material the couch was made out of, she breathed in the smell of new leather product. All the time, her mind was racing to try to make sense of what her boyfriend was talking about.

"Never mind." He dismissed it, but there was a devious undertone in his voice that she had caught on.

"What is it?"

"Come here, let me show you something more important." He decided, opening the door once again and leading her outside. Reaching to the top drawer that was locked before he twisted the key, he pulled out a white envelope.

"What's this?" Ana asked, she was about to ask if it was the surveillance detail that he had on the sub that he was going to recruit after Elena's brainwash and before meeting her, but she bit it back, knowing it would be the most inappropriate thing to joke about with their just cured relationship.

"My will." He informed when he was sure that Ana was going to read through the content.

"You have a very long will." She commented, unsure of what to say. "Why am I reading it?" She stopped short before pulling the papers out from the container.

"Because you are a part of it."

…

"Christian, you're telling me that this building only took you two years to build?" Grace was in tears when she step foot in the empty building.

Before they had arrived, Ana was with Christian christening every surface of his office, and they were just on their second round on his couch in his small living room, his family arrived. After the short heated discussion between the two of them, Ana had agreed to go over the will with him tonight, and that reminded them of another discussion.

 _"You said you want to forget about the fallout we had, Ana." Christian started nervously, which caught Ana's attention, because he was rarely nervous about anything._

 _"Yeah?"_

 _"Are you still moving in with me?" He asked in a small voice._

 _"Why not?" She stared at him, knowing why he asked. "I don't see anything stopping me. Well, except if you don't want me to."_

 _"No, please don't ever think that." He reached for her quickly, forcing her to abandon the will in her hand that she was supposed to be reading._

 _"Didn't you want me to go over that?" She asked innocently, though the movements of her hands were far from innocent._

 _"We can go over it together, at home." He said, liking the sound of the word 'home' for the first time in his life._

 _"Okay, at home." She agreed, feeling the happiness radiating off him when she said the word 'home' and referring to their place together._

"I'm not going to deny the fact that I have been rushing the construction company more than they're tolerating." Christian shrugged, having the decency to at least look sheepish under his mom's accusing gaze.

"This is a beautiful building, son." Carrick remarked, entering the office for the first time since he got here.

Mia and Elliot were still on their way with their other half, taking their time, doing just as Christian had suggested.

"It is, but I think this is the looker of the building." He indicated to his office. Ana followed his gaze, but she saw nothing out of ordinary and nothing special.

"Why?" She voiced out her question before Carrick and Grace had came up with an answer of their own.

"Does this look familiar to you?" Christian pulled her to where he was standing behind the desk and saw that on the wall right in front of them, mounted with a plain white picture frame was the very paper she gave him for his birthday, unrolled and smoothened beneath the crystal glass.

"You used it?" Her hands flew to her mouth to cover up her opened mouth. Following her gaze, his parents spotted the very same picture frame, but they didn't see anything special from it.

"Remember the birthday gift that I refused to show anyone?" Christian explained to his parents. "The plainest one, and the last one that I've opened that day." He continued to bring back memories of that day. "The day when I told Anastasia that I love her in front of all of you?" He reminded. "That was the gift." He finally said it, and to say his parents' jaws were on the floor was an understatement, because they froze on their spot.

"Oh my god, why did you use it?" Ana turned back to Christian, looking at him with an accusing glare.

"What's wrong with it? It's perfect, and I love it, so why not use it?" Christian frowned thinking that he had upset her.

"I designed it all by myself." She cried.

"That's even better, then."

"No, it's not!" She exclaimed. "You know that I know absolutely nothing about design, let alone interior design. I'm not artsy, I've got no talent when it comes to art. I just did my research online and started to design it on top of my mind. I did it because I couldn't think of anything to give you for your birthday, and your birthday was just a few months, so I rushed it." She stared at the picture in horror and then at back at him as if she had seen ghosts.

"What's so bad about it? I think it's perfect and flawless, just like its designer."

"Flattery won't work, Christian."

"Then will sex do?"

"No!" Ana exclaimed, though she didn't hear the question.

"I'll show you what sex with me is capable of achieving, tonight." He said softly, for her ears only. "Are you still worried about how I used your design?"

"I'm not only worried, I am mad about you using it."

"Baby, even the designer I met with thought a professional designed it for me. She was really impressed when I told her it was your work, imagine how proud I am. I know my compliment won't sooth you much because everything you do is beautiful in my eyes, so I'll tell you that everyone fucking loved this office design when the computer generated picture was shown to the construction crew. They were in awe, baby. They were in awe of your work, and I am in awe of you."

Ana looked into his eyes properly, for the first time in a long while, and when her blue orbs locked with his gray ones, she felt herself calming down and believing each and every words he had said. She didn't want to, but she did, and somehow, she felt more confident and stronger; she was empowered and flattered at the same time when she saw the pride in his eyes. It made her chest swell contentedly with happiness.

"Is that my gift?" She asked in a barely audible whisper.

"That's _one_ of your gifts." He replied. "The will is yours to keep." He added, "but I'd like to know why you put that room in there."

"For just the purpose of what we were doing before your parents got here." She answered in a poker-face, shrugging as if it was too obvious that it didn't need to be questioned.

"Oh, how I love that idea." He took her in his arms again, peppering her face with kisses once he noticed that his parents had excused themselves elsewhere around the building.

"What's next then?" She asked breathlessly.

"Two things," he put up two fingers.

"Two?" She squealed, not knowing what to think of it already. He had publicized their relationship at school before he got too famous just like they had planned long ago; building his office just the way she had designed it to show her just how much he loved it; giving her his will… and there was more. She didn't know what to think of it.

"Yes, two." He nodded. "I have to wait for everyone to arrive before I give you one of them, so I'll give you the other one." He informed, taking out another folder from the corner of his desk and handing it to her.

"It's lease to your three houses." She read out loud.

"Yes."

"And?" She asked, but gasped before he could have the chance to give her an answer. "Why did you put my name on it?" She questioned, hoping that it was just a mistake, and not what she was thinking about.

"What do you think? Sign the papers, please." He smiled, though there was a hint of nervousness behind his tone.

"Why are you signing them over to me?" She still had an uneasy feeling.

"I'm just adding your name to it." He explained, pointing out that it was just part of the contract.

"Still, why?"

"Because I love you."

"That's not a reason."

"Because I can."

"Still not a reason."

"Because I want to."

Ana didn't know how to respond to his insistence. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Nothing." He shrugged.

"You know I just want to be with you."

"Then let's share what I have." He finished for her, "because half of this company is yours, too."

Ana stood there, she knew he would be doing it and she knew she would be accepting it sooner or later, but she still didn't know what to do when it all happened sooner than she thought.

"Is this a gift too?"

"Please do remember that I'm not and will never, ask anything in return from you. These are all gifts because I love you and I want to share them with you."

"We are still young, Christian."

"Please, don't doubt what we have. Have faith in us, baby, believe that we will last; because if you don't, then I'm not sure how you will be reacting to the next gift." He pleaded. He had been meeting with some kind of resistance with every gift he had presented to her, and he was really nervous to how she would react to the last and most important one.

…

Presented in front of Anastasia was a small delicate black velvet box. Once it was flipped opened, an elegant cursive of her first name was written inside. In the small container laid the most beautiful diamond ring connected to a platinum necklace.

"It must've cost you a fortune."

"Worth every penny."

Christian grinned at his mother who could no longer hold back the tears in her eyes, as she and the other two girls hugged together and stared at the exchange in front of them, weeping in happiness.

When he explained to her that it was a promise ring, promising her that he would be spending all his life making up to that one almost lethal mistake, and in the near-future, he would be presenting a much more exquisite ring to be worn on her finger.

"Tell me, baby, is what we have a fling or a lifetime commitment?"

 **The End.**

* * *

 **I know you might have different takes on how this will end, and I'm not asking you to accept my way of ending, so, what I'm trying to say is, I'd like to hear from you!**

 **Just to address to reviews that mentioned wanting a sequel or an epilogue- I'm glad to hear that you all loved it and can't get enough of it, as to a sequel or an epilogue, I will be thinking about it, but I won't guarantee anything.**

 **Thank you, everyone, for your constant supports, critics, comments and reviews. I love you all! If you like my writing style or just simply want to talk, feel free to contact me. I'm very laidback (another reason why I can tolerate trolls and literally all kinds of comments/reviews).**

 **Especially, to Cindra, Margaret Talai, JB (guest), pepe71, Christian Grey I love you, fundays, mic476, Sam 'Dimples' Swarek, daytonalay, Christian618.**

 _Laters, baby x_

-SapphireTrafficker-


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